A Very Small Issue
by LizzieCB13
Summary: When Dean is transformed into a 4 year old by a witch Sam, Bobby and Castiel must protect him from demons, angels, monsters and plain old humans. They must also team up with unlikely allies in order to change him back. T for language although not that bad. Set in season 5 between episode 17 and 18. Mainly fluff but a bit of violence, nothing worse than what's on the show.
1. Chapter 1

A Very Small Issue

Chapter 1

Sam wasn't sure what he had been expecting when he arrived at Bobby's after speeding down the highway at a constant speed of 80 miles per hour for the past 40 minutes to discover what the 'small issue' Bobby had texted him about was. It seemed over excessive for a small issue, it would have been for a small issue, but a 's_mall_ issue' never meant a small issue; no, a 'small issue' meant a frigging huge problem that's way out of control. Sam had imagined scenarios of Bobby's house being overrun by demons, a fire blazing within the junkyard, the possibility of either his brother or Bobby being severely injured snuck into Sam's imagination before he quickly disbanded the notion, attempting to forget that he had ever thought of it.

Sam pulled up outside of the house, practically leaping out of the car and sprinting towards the front door, eager to discover what was the 'small issue' Bobby had phoned about, the 'small issue' Sam had dropped everything to provide assistance in, the 'small issue' which Sam had broken several laws for in order to get to Bobby's house in the time he had. After rapping at the door with all his might, he was faced with Bobby, a finger to his lips, whispering in the quietest voice Sam had ever heard from the man in the entire time he had known him. "Shut up, you damn idjit." Bobby turned and walked back into the house without greeting Sam or explaining what the 'small issue' was. Sam followed him into the house almost reluctantly, shutting the door silently behind him. For such a 'small issue' Bobby seemed fairly collected.

"Bobby, what's going on? What's the 'small issue'?" Sam whispered in an equally quiet voice to the one Bobby had used, slightly confused by the need for such hushed voices and quiet movements. It wasn't until they were standing in the kitchen that Bobby had truly acknowledged Sam, handing him a beer from the fridge he cleared his throat, preparing to say something although only silence followed his preparation. Bobby was unable to explain, finding it difficult to maintain eye contact for long periods of time. Suddenly something in Sam's head clicked as he looked around the kitchen. Something was missing, someone was missing.

"Bobby, where's Dean?" Sam asked suspiciously as the older hunter swallowed a large gulp of beer, trying to avoid answering for as long as possible.

"Well, we were checking out the old factory where Harold Gunn had worked before he was killed. It was a basic job; that was until that witch we thought we ganked on Tuesday turned up. She was really pissed after our last encounter and, well, she did something to Dean." Bobby said, eyes still not meeting Sam's.

"What?! What did she do? I'm going to-" Sam's voice began to rise, fuelled by anger at the thought of his brother being injured.

"shhh," Bobby interrupted Sam's vow of vegence, signalling for Sam to be quiet with hands as he looked over his shoulder into the living room. "Dean's fine. He's just, you know, different is all." His brow furrowed under the pressure of trying to explain the confusing and slightly unbelievable situation to Sam.

"What do you mean 'different'?" Sam asked, eyes narrowing in curiosity, his hand subconsciously fumbling with the beer cap that was determined not to be detached.

Bobby sighed, "It's hard to explain." With one final cautionary glance over his shoulder, he eventually settled on a solution. "Come on, it's best if I just show you." He started towards the living room, pausing just in front of the doorway, turning to warn Sam. "Just don't freak out, okay? It took me nearly an hour to calm him down before and he wouldn't stop crying." Sam began to worry. _Dean had been crying?_ Things must be bad.Bobby's hushed voice sounded slightly irritated and tired; it was only at that moment that Sam noticed the dark circles around Bobby's eyes, making them look hollow and dark. "And try not to make too much noise, you'll wake him up and then we'll never get him back to sleep." He chugged the rest of his beer before placing the empty bottle on the table. Sam nodded, slightly confused by Bobby's requests.

Nonetheless, Sam obliged to them as he followed Bobby into the dimly lit living room. Bobby stood still in front of the couch, arms crossed as he stared down at the pile of blankets sprawled across the couch. Sam squinted, encouraging his eyes to become accustomed to the new lighting. After a minute or two Sam began to notice the steady rise and fall of the blankets and the soft sounds of breathing. Staring more closely at the blankets he spots a small arm protruding from them, dangling over the edge of the couch, too small to reach the ground. Messy tufts of sandy blonde hair stuck out the top of the blankets that covered the remainder of the tiny figure, no more than fragments of a freckled covered face could be seen.

Sam spoke in such a quiet voice he was barely heard by the older hunter. "Bobby, why do you have a kid asleep on your couch?" Sam suspected what the answer would be, the freckles and the hair were big hints, but he hoped that Bobby would disprove his suspicions.

Bobby rubbed his forehead, struggling to remove his eyes from the boy on the couch. "Because that's not a kid, technically, it's Dean." His voice was somehow even quitter than Sam's, if their voices became any quieter only bats will be able to hear them.

Sam stared from Bobby's sincere expression to the small boy on the couch. How was this kid Dean? His brother was a fully grown, somewhat immature, adult. Looking at Bobby sceptically, Sam protested. "But this kid looks about four years old. I didn't even know a witch could do something like this." Had walked back into the kitchen, he was nervous about waking the small child since he was slowly losing control of the volume of his voice, he was also beginning to feel uncomfortable around the younger version of his older brother.

"Well, neither did I; but I'm not that surprised. Remember that witch that was making people younger and turned me and Dean into old men? They must've found a way to gain control over age." Bobby closed the kitchen door as he said this, cautious of waking Dean.

"But why? Why would a witch want to turn Dean into a four year old? What would she gain from it?" Sam stumbled over his words, still half convinced this wasn't happening.

"Revenge, I guess." Bobby said with a shrug. "Do you not remember what happened the last time we saw her? Dean shot her, twice." Sam sighed at the recollection of his brother's actions. "What more of an excuse do you want?" Bobby opened the fridge once again to pull out two more beers now that Sam had drunk his previous bottle in one fluent gulp.

Sam accepted the beer but didn't open it, just held it in his hands and stared into the dimly lit living room with a blank expression.

"Why not just kill him then? I don't understand why she would do this when she could've killed him, that's what most people do for revenge." Sam suspected that there was a larger plan which involved dean being so young, that was the only thing that seemed logical.

"Maybe she thinks it's funny. Just be thankful she didn't do something worse, at least this way dean's safe and we can try to keep it that way." Sam remained apprehensive, if this witch was plotting something that included a child version of dean it was most likely something horrific, possibly worse than death.

"Is there any way to cure him? To turn him back to his older self?" Sam didn't look at Bobby when he asked this, just continued to stare blankly into the living room, silently praying that the answer would be yes; Sam could bare to think what he would do if the answer was no.

"I'm not sure yet. There's not much about age regression in any of the books I have, it's not a very common occurrence; but I'll go to the library tomorrow, see if I can't find any information about it there." Bobby's eyes were also fixed on the living room as he explained his strategy to discover a cure for Dean to Sam. Bobby also wondered what the future would hold if he couldn't find a way to turn Dean back to his usual self.

Sam nodded slowly, processing everything that had happened in the past 20 minutes. "So, what do we do in the meantime?" after a questioning look from Bobby, Sam decided to elaborate his query. "I mean he's what, 4 years old?"

Bobby nodded, looking solemnly at the bundle of blankets through the glass panels of the kitchen door. "I think so. I didn't really know you two or your father when he was that age," he gestured towards the sleeping figure that was Dean. "But I don't remember him looking that young when we did meet for the first time. He was 6 then, so, yeah, I reckon he's about 4." Sam concentrated, trying to recall what Dean had looked like at the age of 4; of course Sam didn't know first-hand, he would have only been a couple months old at the time, but he tried to picture the photographs of his brother he had seen in his head. Bobby must have read his mind as all of a sudden he voiced Sam's idea. "I have a box full of things from your old house that your dad kept here, things from when you were younger. I think it's somewhere upstairs, maybe out back. It's got old photographs in it; I think most of them have dates on them. We could try to find one of Dean, the way he looks at the moment, and find the date on it; that could help us tell what age he is."

Sam was slightly overwhelmed by his new found discovery, he hadn't realised Bobby was so sentimental, nor his dad.

"Have you tried asking him his age? It would save a lot of time, and maths." Sam considered this a fairly obvious solution and was surprised he hadn't thought of it earlier.

"He doesn't know." Bobby said with a small shrug, "he's just as confused about this as we are, probably more."

"So he remembers everything?" Sam asked shocked and disturbed by the idea that a 4 year has memories of forties years spent in hell.

"Looks like it." Bobby said, his voice also sounded resentful towards the weight a now very young Dean was forced to bare. Sam shook his head sorrowfully, the weight Dean carried was more than any man should ever have to carry, never mind a small child. Sam was astonished that Dean was actually sleeping and not having a mental breakdown right now.

"So it's just Dean, in a child's body?" Sam asked, eyes squinting as he tried to catch another glimpse of his brother through the dark room. He thought that if he kept looking, confirming it was really happening, his mind would slowly come to terms with the strange situation.

Bobby put down his half empty beer and released a small sigh. "Not exactly. He remembers, but, eh, well he behaves, well," Bobby paused for a moment searching his vocabulary for the appropriate words, "he behaves like a kid."

"What do you mean 'like a kid'?" Sam asked, his eyes now firmly on Bobby.

"Well, he acts like a 4 year old would act; like when he first found out he was transformed, he cried for nearly 2 hours." Bobby shared a similar expression of worry that Sam wore. "Then he didn't talk for a while, clung to that blanket until he fell asleep." Sam nodded, he understood. Those actions did not sound like his brother, it sounded like the actions of a scared 4 year old.

After looking at the clock, Bobby drank the remainder of his beer before saying, "C'mon, it's pretty late and you look exhausted."

Sam shook his head in disagreement. "We need to-"

"There isn't much we can do now; it's too late to do anything that would help. I think it's time to hit the hay, we can try to fix this in the morning." Sam still didn't look convinced. "You have to sleep Sam; you can't survive on caffeine alone." Sam reluctantly nodded, placing his un-opened beer bottle on the table and grabbing his back-pack he had brought in from the car. Why hadn't he gone with Bobby and Dean instead of interviewing those useless witnesses about Gunn; he could have prevented all of this from happening. But, like Bobby said, there wasn't anything they could do at half one in the morning so he went upstairs, collapsing onto the bed only to lie awake, staring at the bedroom ceiling, for nearly an hour before falling into much needed sleep. One sentence repeated itself in his mind, _tomorrow was not going to be fun_.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

As he had predicted, Sam's day started badly. He was abruptly woken up at around 7 am by the gruff sound of Bobby's voice, "What the hell happened in here?!"

Sam launched out of bed and ran down the stairs two at a time only to discover a kitchen covered in flour, cereal and what looked like orange juice. The site calmed Sam down somewhat; he had been expecting broken windows and demons, this seemed like paradise compared to the scenarios he had created in his head.

His relief was short lived when he heard a quiet whimpering and a whispered, "I was hungwy." He looked down to see a tiny figure decorated in the matching contents of the kitchen, his camouflage almost prevented Sam from noticing the small boy.

"So you decided to throw all the contents of my cupboards onto the floor?" Bobby's voice was rising, sounding intimidatingly angry, especially for a young child.

"I didn' do it on purpose. It was a acciden'." Dean's voice was beginning to crack, his grip on the small blanket in his arms tightened. Tears were beginning to run down his cheeks, creating streaked lines in the mask of flour. It was weird seeing Dean like this; seeing him so young and scared of being yelled at.

Bobby's expression softened as he crouched down in order to be eye level with Dean. "Hey, c'mon now, don't cry." His voice was soft and gentle.

"Are you mad at me?" Dean looked up at Bobby, his green eyes were larger than Sam had ever remembered them being, the fresh tears Dean was now rubbing at with the back of his tiny fists made them seem brighter than they already were.

"Of course not," Bobby said with a large smile, massaging the boy's back attempting to revert his breathing back to its normal rate. "I just would have preferred it if you came to ask for help from me or Sam." Bobby's attempt to calm Dean down was in vain since his breath became rapid again and tears began to fall faster.

"But, I-I can do, eh, it on, m-my own." His words were punctuated with infrequent sobs and sniffles. "Like I-I did, whe-en I-I was, big."

Bobby continued to rub his back, pulling him into a hug after the massaging failed to console the crying boy. "I know you could, Dean, and maybe you still can. But things are different now, you're different; its okays to ask for help, you know?" Dean's whimpers evened out into deep breaths attempting to regain his composure; his grubby fists continued to rub at his eyes as he nodded his tiny head. "Okay, now I think we ought to get you cleaned up and into clothes that actually fit you. How does that sound?" It was only after Bobby said this did Sam realise Dean was draped in a large black t-shirt (although it looked white now because of the flour) that hang down past his feet. Sam recognised it as the t-shirt Dean had been wearing when Sam last saw his fully grown brother the day before. Dean didn't answer Bobby's question, he just nodded his head again, trying with all his might to hold back the tears that were threatening to begin falling again.

Bobby turned towards Sam who was leaning in the doorway, observing the strange and unfamiliar scene unfold before him. "Sam, I need to clean this mess up and find some clothes for Dean. Do you think you can give him a bath?" Dean also looked towards Sam, only noticing him now that Bobby had addressed him; he looked embarrassed by the notion of Sam bathing him, even if he was 4 years old. Sam nodded, also feeling rather embarrassed by the idea of bathing his older brother; but Sam obliged repositioning Dean who Bobby had handed over to him.

Carrying Dean, who was surprisingly light even for such a small child, Sam followed Bobby up the stairs. Bobby turned into a room Sam had only been in on a hand full of occasions and Sam went into the bathroom, turning on the tap for the bath and ensuring the water wasn't too hot or cold for Dean's young figure.

Dean was sat on the closed toilet seat, rubbing at the last remaining tears in the corners of his eyes, chewing the collar of the over-size t-shirt subconsciously while staring at different areas of the bathroom; he seemed so young and innocent. Sam didn't remember his brother ever being so small, Dean had always been the older brother and, for the majority of their childhood, bigger than Sam; always strong, brave and confident. Seeing him like this made Sam realise how small Dean had been at that age.

When the bath had enough water in it for Dean, which wasn't that much since he was so small, Dean heaved himself off of the toilet seat, reluctantly allowing Sam to remove the much too large t-shirt and lift him into the bath. While Sam washed Dean's hair, making sure he didn't get any shampoo in Dean's eyes, a little voice said in what Sam assumed was Dean's attempt of a threatening voice, "we aw newer speakin' abou' dis again." Sam stifled a laugh, hearing a 4 year old version of his brother threatening him was hilarious.

Sam wrapped a towel around Dean after lifting him from the mixture of clumped flour and cereal that now inhabited the bath. Sam towel dried the small boy before carrying him out of the room, grabbing the flour covered t-shirt off of the floor as he left. He followed the sound of Bobby's voice shouting, "I'm in here." 'Here' referring to the bedroom Sam had slept in last night, however now there was a large, brown cardboard box in the centre of the room, scrawled across the side in black marker pen was 'Dean's baby stuff'. Sam's heart flickered at the thought of Bobby storing meaningful possessions from their childhood. On the bed Sam had slept on, he saw that Bobby had laid out an outfit for Dean that consisted of a pair of jeans, some blue socks, underwear and a tiny long-sleeved grey t-shirt and on top of it, a green and white striped short-sleeved t-shirt with a picture of a cartoon dinosaur in the middle.

Bobby had his head almost inside the box, pulling out objects and organising them into two piles, one was considerably larger than the other. Dean stared at the smaller pile, eyes wide and fixed on a tatty, chocolate brown teddy bear that was on top of the pile. He wriggled in Sam's grip, "Sammy, pu' me dow' now!" Dean demanded as he kicked furiously.

"You need to get dressed first, Dean." Sam said, tightening his hold on his brother, desperately trying not to drop him.

"Fine, pu' me dow' an' I can do i' mysewf." Dean said with an extra hard kick to Sam's abdomen, making Sam wince at the pain.

Sam obliged and put Dean on the bed next to the neatly arranged clothes. "Don' watch me 'ou perv!" Dean's high voice exclaimed as Sam sighed and turned away to assist Bobby in whatever he was doing; although there wasn't much help Sam could provide, so he stood watching the older man organise Dean's old belongings, arms folded as he concentrated on the process. He rubbed his abdomen, reducing the pain dean had caused. Sam was rapidly becoming annoyed by the younger form of his brother; were all toddlers like this or was it just Dean?

While observing Bobby Sam noticed patches of flour stained his shirt, obviously caused by cleaning up the mess dean had created earlier. Sam felt even sorrier for Bobby than himself; Bobby shouldn't be burdened with a young child, even if it was Dean, especially if it was Dean.

After a couple of minutes and a range of frustrated sounds from Dean Sam decided to ask, "Are you okay Dean?" The sight Sam saw when he turned to face the bed had him clutching his ribs laughing. Dean was rolling on his back like a turtle, one leg in his jeans the other one kicking frantically at the air, his head was jammed into one of the arm holes of the long-sleeved t-shirt while both arms were hidden inside the t-shirt.

"I'm fine. Stop laughin'!" Dean's voice was muffled by the material of the t-shirt and lost in the motion of rolling. Sam walked over to the bed to help his struggling brother. He moved Dean's other foot through the leg of his jeans; the waistband was elasticated so it was easy to get them on, Sam then rearranged the top so Dean's arms and head were in the correct openings; now the long-sleeved t-shirt was on properly, Sam placed the short-sleeved t-shirt on top. The tiny socks slipped on easily and looked really cute on Dean small feet. "There you go." Sam said a bit over enthusiastically.

Dean looked up at him, a look of pure disgust on his face. That look was quickly replaced by one of longing and desire when Dean's eyes fell upon the tattered teddy bear again. He hopped off the bed and ran towards the smaller pile of varied objects next to Bobby. He grabbed the teddy bear, wrapping his arms around it and hugging it tightly, uttering into its fur, "Zeppelin".

Bobby and Sam both smiled at this before Bobby dumped the larger pile back into the box. The smaller pile consisted of a couple of toys, a plain green t-shirt, a dark blue coat with red mittens attached to the sleeves by matching red string, a small light blue, woolly hat and a pair of tiny red high tops. All of these looked as worn as the teddy bear and the clothes Dean was wearing.

Bobby addressed Sam, although he continued to review the items the remaining pile consisted of, "this was all that was salvageable, the rest all look too big for him or are damaged beyond repair. You may need to pay a visit to the store for some more supplies. We're not sure how long Dean's going to be like this." He placed the objects he had now picked up onto the bed.

"I'm wight here, 'ou know. I'm no' gonna be a stuck as a ki' fowever!" Dean moaned as his lower lip started to quiver slowly; he was becoming distressed by the idea of being a child for any longer.

"I know Dean, but I haven't found anything about age regression in my books yet and we haven't faced anything like this before. I promise you though, I will do everything in my power to turn you back; I'm going to the library today to try to find a way to fix this." Bobby said, rubbing Dean's arm in a soothing motion. Dean nodded, his arms tightening around the teddy that was in his arms; he nuzzled his head further into, using it as a tissue to dry his eyes and nose.

"Bu' findin' somethin' bou' age wegwe-we-we," Dean shook his head, abandoning his efforts at correctly pronouncing the word 'regression' "bu' tha' could take fowever," Dean whined, his voice was muffled once again by the material shoved in his mouth; this time it was the ear of Zeppelin.

"Well, you and I can go get some supplies while Bobby does research at the library; time will fly." Sam said while picking up the shoes, coat and hat off of the bed; replacing them with the flour covered t-shirt.

After Dean's disastrous attempt at preparing breakfast earlier that morning, there wasn't any food left in the house suitable for a growing boy, unless you count whiskey and beer as one of your 5-a-day; so Sam and Bobby had agreed get some breakfast at the diner Bobby regularly visited and ate at, causing a delighted Dean to jump on the bed in excitement.

Dean stopped bouncing long enough for Sam to put his shoes on for him, kicking Sam in the face and almost breaking his nose in the process. The shoes were a bit big for Dean since there was a substantial gap between the end of the shoe and Dean's toes, so Sam added new shoes to his mental shopping list, which was getting worryingly long. He then placed Dean's arms through the coat arms and zipped it up; the coat also looked too large for Dean and made him appear smaller than he already was. Sam struggled to get Dean's hands into the mittens since Dean refused, claiming mittens were 'babyish'.

"Dean, its December. If you don't wear gloves your fingers are going to freeze and you'll catch a cold." Sam pleaded with him, coaxing his fingers into the bright red mittens. Eventually, Dean submitted and his tiny fingers morphed together inside the material. Sam placed the fluffy blue hat on Dean's head covering tiny ears; Dean pushed it up since it covered half of his face and obstructed his vision. Some of his sandy blonde hair, which had now been dried by Sam, stuck out the front of the hat. Sam had to admit, Dean looked adorable, even with the frown he wore when Sam stated his observation.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The waitress at the diner appeared to agree with Sam as she couldn't stop cooing and awing at Dean from the moment they walked into the diner. She had recognised Sam as the FBI he'd claimed to be when he was investigating the zombie outbreak a couple months back; although didn't bother to ask why he was back or where his partner, who flirted with her endlessly, had gone, obviously she was not as interested in Dean as he thought she was. She asked Bobby who "the cutie-pie" was since Bobby had visited the diner numerous times, but never with a child. Bobby told her Dean was his nephew, he and Sam had decided this would be their excuse while in the impala since Bobby suspected some people would most likely be curious, the story was that Dean's father was away working so Bobby had agreed to let Dean stay with him. Bobby explained the situation in a way that seemed like it was second nature to him; after all the times their father had simply dumped the two boys at Bobby's doorstep when a hunting job emerged, Sam supposed it probably was a frequent explanation Bobby had used in the past.

The waitress nodded and bent down to get a better look at Dean, "Well aren't you the cutest little thing; I have a younger brother who's just a little older than you. He's a little brat though, I'm sure you're not like that, are you?" She asked rhetorically, stroking Dean's cheek as he basked in the attention of such an attractive woman. She was fairly young; she mustn't have been more than 19 or 20. She wore the same apparel as the other two waitresses in the diner, both of them a lot older than her, which was a light yellow dress with a frilly white apron tied around her waist; her uniform was decorated with four badges of cartoon animals (a cat, a dog, a turtle and a giraffe) around her collar and a name tag with 'Emma' written in neat pink gel pen. Her blonde curly hair was tied up in a ponytail, only a strand fell astray, making her facial features stand out more than they already did; she had large blue eyes and a dazzling white smile. Dean revealed a toothy grin, smitten with the compliments he was receiving. "So what's your name then cutie?" she asked, smiling down at Dean.

"Dean!" he exclaimed happily. Sam raised his eyebrows at the amount of enthusiasm Dean showed causing the young boy's cheeks to quickly turn red in embarrassment; an attempted serious and grown-up expression now occupied his face.

The waitress laughed at Dean's reaction, "That's a lovely name, Dean. I'm Emma. It's really nice to meet you." She accepted Dean's mitten covered handshake, giggling at the fact this mature gesture was coming from a 4 year old boy.

Emma stood up and lead them to a booth near one of the front windows, Dean clambered into one side of the booth and pressed his nose up against the window, as a 4 year old he seemed to be fascinated by the snow that had begun to fall (though, Sam figured this was normal for children that age and couldn't recall anyone who hadn't been excited by falling clumps of frozen water). Sam and Bobby climbed into the seats on the opposite side of the table, smiling at Dean's excitement. Dean peeled his face of the window long enough to remove his despised mittens and hat. Once they had settled into their seats, Emma provided the three of them with menus, two large adult menus and one smaller child menu with cartoon pictures on it for Dean.

"Pancakes!" Dean squealed happily when he saw the picture on the front of the menu; Emma giggled at Dean's enthusiasm for food. Sam smiled when he realised Dean's passion for food has never changed since he was 4. Dean's persistence for coffee was admirable, coming close to throwing his cutlery at Sam when he continued to deny his dose of much needed caffeine.

Finally Sam convinced him to choose a different beverage after a promise that he would receive pie later if he would comply; Emma noted Dean's new order of 'lo's o' pancakes an' chocla' milk' in her small notepad after confirming the renewed order was acceptable with Bobby (Sam suspected she would not bring the amount of pancakes Dean would be expecting though). She then wrote down Sam's order of bacon and toast and Bobby's order of waffles, both accompanied with coffee much to Dean's annoyance.

While they waited for their food, Emma gave Dean a colouring booklet the diner had for younger costumers and a packet of 5 crayons with a limited variety of colours. He began to solve the various puzzles and activities, missing out the word searches and cross words, this was a trait that didn't change when he entered adulthood; he became irritated when Sam attempted to help him solve the puzzles he was struggling with and pulled the booklet away, covering it with his pint-sized arm. "I can do i' mysewf, Sam! I don' nee' help!" Sam retreated, disbanding his efforts of helping his brother.

When their food finally arrived Dean's eyes widened at the sight of the short stack doused in maple syrup and a dollop of whipped cream. Bobby and Sam finished their breakfast, or brunch as it probably was at this time, and sat watching Dean devour his pancakes happily, sipping the blue straw of his chocolate milk, which was also topped with whipped cream, every once in a while.

The scene was interrupted by a familiar voice, "Bobby singer, what are you doing here so early? Sam, is that you? What are you doing in town? Is it more zombies?" the questions belonged to sheriff Mills who was standing in front of their booth; the last question was asked in a hushed voice, trying not to worry the ignorant bystanders.

Sam smiled, greeting her with a, "Hi sheriff."

"Sheriff Mills, err, nice to see you." Bobby said, trying to draw her attention away from Dean who was slurping the ends of his chocolate milk; well, it was mainly whipped cream left in the glass but Dean refused to let any of it go to waste (probably enjoying the whipped cream more than the chocolate milk). Bobby's attempt at distraction was futile though, Dean was hard to overlook due to the amount of noise he was making while drinking. She turned her head to look at the freckled, blonde boy whose face was covered in syrup and whipped cream, the toothy grin was still on his face from his amusement of his sugary breakfast. Sheriff Mills looked from the boy to Bobby and Sam and then back to the boy.

"Why have you two idiots got a kid with you? And where's your brother?" she addressed Sam as she said this, obviously more curious than Emma about the whereabouts of Dean. Sam and Bobby looked at each other, trying to telepathically communicate an excuse for Dean's absence and an explanation about the young boy. Sheriff Mills knew Bobby didn't have a nephew, or a brother at that, and Bobby suspected she was beginning to piece together the situation considering her knowledge of the supernatural.

Before they could say anything Emma approached the booth, smiling at the sheriff. "Hiya, Jodie. Do you want the usual."

Sheriff Mills nodded, "That would be great, Emma." She said, reciprocating the friendly smile before returning to scrutinize Bobby and Sam with her eyes. Their expressions had lightened, looking relieved; luckily they had a distraction in the form of a young waitress. However what they thought was a saviour turned out to be the opposite.

"Loo-'k Emma, I drew 'ou a pi'ture!" Dean said, holding up a crude drawing of a black car that resembled the impala. He was determined to impress the pretty waitress, even if he was only 4.

Emma smiled at the picture, replying with fake sincerity. "Wow Dean. I'm really impressed." Sam knew she was trying to be kind, but he felt like yelling at her for complicating the situation further, even if it was done unknowingly. Sheriff Mills narrowed her eyes, glaring at Bobby and Sam like this was somehow their fault.

Emma must have sensed the awkwardness of the situation since she backed away hastily from the booth mumbling an excuse about their bill. Sheriff Mills raised her eyebrows silently asking the obvious question; Bobby nodded.

"So, this kid is actually Dean?" The sheriff asked hoping to confirm her deduction. Her voice sounded unevenly pitched, as though she didn't believe what was happening; Sam would completely understand if she didn't. Sam barely believed this was happening and he'd experienced more weird happenings than the sheriff would ever contemplate.

Dean's toothy grin was now directed at her, "De one an' only!"

* * *

AN: Thank you for the reviews, I really appreciate them and would love some input from you readers. I'm glad you are enjoying the story and I hope to get the next chapter up as quickly as possible. The next chapters slightly different and there's a big twist. Hope you all enjoy!


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Sheriff Mills sat down next to Dean, grabbing a napkin, spitting on it before pinching Dean's cheeks and wiping his face clean of maple syrup and whipped cream. Dean struggled, attempting to escape from her grasp, "Ge' off me!"

"You are covered in food; did any of your breakfast even end up in your mouth?" Jody asked, scrubbing Dean's face a little more roughly.

"Uh, I don' wan' spi' on me!" Sam laughed at Dean's utter disgust at the situation, wriggling under Jody's death grip.

When all residue of Dean's breakfast was removed, Jody turned to bobby and Sam. "What happened? At our last encounter he was a fully grown adult, and now he's, what? 3 years old?" She asked, trying to read their facial expressions to see if this was just an unfunny prank.

"4 actually," Bobby said, producing a folded photograph of a young Dean, "I found this when I was looking through those boxes this morning. It's from his fourth birthday. It looks like the right age." Sam and Jody looked at the picture before Bobby folded it and placed it back in his pocket before Dean could see what fascinated everyone.

"I wan'ed to see tha'! Am I invwisible now?" Dean yelled, slamming his tiny fists against the table, making crayons and paper fly off of the table in every direction.

"No tantrums, young man!" Jody scolded, causing Dean to pout and fold his arms across his chest.

"There was a witch," bobby began to explain, slightly intimidated by Jody's parental authority. "She put a curse on Dean that turned him into a 4 year old."

"How long has he been like this? Because, no offence, but you two are incapable of looking after a young child; you can barely look after yourselves." Bobby and Sam stared down at their hands, trying not to fidget; it was beginning to feel like being in the principal's office in middle school.

"It only happened last night. We were going to do research today; you know, to try to turn him back." Sam explained while bobby pulled out his wallet as Emma approached the booth with their bill in hand. It was nearly 11:30 am; bobby had hoped to have started his research hours ago but had been side-tracked by breakfast and now sheriff Mills.

"And you were going to drag Dean along to the library with you? He won't stand still for two minutes, especially after the breakfast you gave to him; look, he's fidgeting now." She was right. Dean had collected the crayons and begun to launch them at Sam, clearly bored of the conversation.

Dodging the flying crayons, Sam said, "No, I was going to take him to the store. We need to pick up some supplies and clothing for Dean. He hasn't-" Sam was abruptly interrupted by Jody's laughing.

"You, shopping for kid's supplies?" she laughed again; Dean also giggled, he wasn't sure what was so funny but assumed something was due to the extent of Jody's laughter. "I'm sorry but I just can't imagine you doing that. Are you sure you can handle it?" she asked between laughs.

Sam's face dropped, "Is it that difficult?" he was becoming worried.

"Oh, honey. I'd rather choose zombies over kid's stores." Sam bit the side of his gum. He had thought shopping would have been a breeze and was glad he had received that job instead of research.

"You had a son, right?" Sam asked, trying to coax Jody into supervising their shopping trip.

"Are you trying to ask me to come with you?" Dean looked up hopefully; he obviously didn't trust Sam to handle shopping on his own either. "Look, I'd love to Sam, but I'm the sheriff. I can't miss a day and let criminals run wild so I can help you idiots with shopping." She looked down at Dean's large, puppy dog eyes before sighing, "Fine, but no more than two hours."

Dean smiled, whereas Sam looked worried as he asked, "It's going to take 2 hours?"

Jody looked at him sympathetically, "Probably longer." She was helping Dean into his coat, putting on his hat and mittens; he didn't struggle once when she did so like he had done continuously when Sam tried to dress him that morning.

They parted with bobby, who took the impala, and climbed into Jody's police car, strapping Dean securely into the back seat, Sam sitting next to him in Case of an accident since they did not possess a car seat yet. It wasn't long before they arrived at the large department store; in fact it took longer to find a parking space than it did to get to the store. Everyone must have come to do last minute Christmas shopping, it was only the 17th but it might as well have been Christmas Eve with the amount of people who were there. Then there was the challenge of locating a functional shopping cart and convincing Dean to sit in the seat there was for children inside the cart, after a warning stare from Jody though, he willingly allowed Sam to pick him up and place him in the seat. Sam really needed to learn how to do the look Jody used which made Dean do what she asked in an instance; maybe it was a thing only parents could do.

"Alright what do you like?" Sam asked as he stopped the cart in the middle of the children clothes section.

Dean pointed at different t-shirts, most of them were plain and one with a picture of a car in the middle; Sam also picked up a couple of t-shirts with cute patterns on them, unable to resist them while Dean looked mortified to be seen with him as Sam showed Dean each of the items he'd chosen. Dean then selected three pairs of jeans, all different shades and styles, two pairs of shoes and a dark brown leather jacket Dean insisted was necessary. While Dean searched through the jackets to find his size, (which was difficult since most 4 year olds did not opt for leather jackets, he eventually settled on one that was a little big for him) Sam grabbed some underwear, socks and footie pajamas designed to look like batman's costume. Dean said the pajamas were childish but Sam noticed him smile at them when he thought Sam wasn't looking.

"Hey Sammy," Dean said, trying to stop laughing in anticipation at the joke he was about to say. He stopped laughing long enough to sport a serious face, "I'm batman." Sam nodded, smiling as his brother burst into a giggling fit.

"Are you boys all done here?" Jody asked while placing a range of food, drinks, toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, cutlery, medicine and more products all designed for children Dean's age. Sam had not realised he would have needed all this for such a small person; he was now thoroughly relieved Jody had agreed to attend their shopping trip.

Sam nodded, "Yeah."

Dean shook his head, producing a squeak of protest, "Bu', we haven' looked a' the toys ye'!" Dean whined, his bottom lip sticking out, puppy dog eyes wide as he squeezed Zeppelin closer to his chest.

"Fine, but you can only pick one toy. Okay?" Dean answered Sam's question with an enthusiastic nod, his toothy grin back on display. The toy aisle was filled with kids, nearly all of them older than Dean bar one who looked about the same age. Sam lifted Dean out of the cart and placed him on the floor, making Dean promise to stay in his sight. Their initial arrangement of one toy soon changed to 3 and then up to 5, Sam desperate to avoid tears and temper tantrums. Finally dragging Dean away from his paradise, the three of them headed towards the checkout. Dean had agreed to keep hold of Sam's hand if he didn't have to go back into the cart so Jody offered to steer the overflowing cart.

While waiting in the queue, Sam noticed Dean was fidgeting, hopping from foot to foot and humming slightly as he bit his lower lip. "Hey, what's up buddy?" Sam asked pulling lightly on Dean's hand to gain his attention.

Dean looked down, ashamedly admitting, "I need to go."

"What?" Sam didn't understand what Dean was talking about.

Emphasising more on the word 'go' Dean repeated, "I need to _go_."

Sam nodded, understanding what his brother was implying. "Oh, well we're about to be served. Can you hold on for, like, 5 minutes?"

Dean shook his head biting his lip harder, Sam thought he was going to end up cutting it and make it bleed.

"I can take him to the restroom while you pay. I'm pretty experienced in the whole process." Jody offered after over-hearing the conversation.

After looking at Dean's desperation again Sam nodded, "okay, I'll meet you out front in ten minutes then."

Jody bent down, scooping Dean up into her arms. She had not walked more than 15 paces when a familiar, trench coat wearing angel appeared in front of her. "Put the child down." Castiel demanded, his voice sounding very threatening.

"Cas!" Dean exclaimed happily, his head was soon pulled into Jody's shoulder muffling his cries of excitement.

"Back off, angel." Jody spat.

"Cas, what are you doing here?" Sam asked stepping out from the queue, only to be ignored by both Castiel and Jody.

"I said, put the child down now!" Cas' face was full of fury, eyes glaring at Jody.

"And I said back off, angel." Jody hissed this time, no longer sounding like Jody. "Unless, you want me to slit the boy's throat right now? I was going to wait until later, introduce him to a few friends of mine, but I suppose now is a good time as well."

Sam abandoned the cart at the queue and was running towards Cas, Jody and Dean. As he got closer Sam could hear muffled whimpers from Dean who was still hidden in Jody's shoulder; Sam wanted to look his brother in the eyes and tell him he was going to be okay but his face was hidden in Jody's shoulder.

Castiel stepped towards Jody and Dean before stopping when Jody raised an arm, signalling him not to come any closer, "You couldn't imagine how happy I was when I saw the famous impala drive into town a couple of days ago. I have been in this damn body for nearly 2 months now, do you know how frustrating that's been? After the whole zombie occurrence, I was told to possess the sheriff so I've been stuck in this town waiting for the Winchesters to return to visit their much loved Bobby Singer." Jody gave Sam a sickening smile. "And then when I found you in that diner this morning only to discover that the great Dean Winchester, heaven's most wanted, had been transformed into a 4 year old." She released an equally sickening laugh. "You were in way over your head with it all and it was so easy to gain your trust. Lucifer will be so pleased to discover Dean's new-found form." She looked down at Dean, pulling him away from her shoulder, grabbing both of his small fists in one hand as his attempted to escape by punching hysterically, his efforts were futile considering Jody's demon's strength. "Aww, don't cry little Deano. We're only going to kill you, probably."

Dean had tears streaming from his eyes, his breathing rapid and uneasy; his terrified gaze turned to Sam, then to Cas, silently pleading for help. A crowd had begun to gather around them, investigating the stand-off between their sheriff and the two men. The possessed Jody pulled out her gun from her belt, aiming it towards Dean's head. Gasps were released in unison from the crowd; phones were being pulled out in order to call someone, like the authorities could help.

"If anyone tries to stop me from leaving or calls the cops, remember I have a police radio in my car so I _will_ know, this little fella," she gave Dean a kiss on the head, Dean struggled more and attempted to escape the demon's grasp only to be squeezed more tightly. "Gets two bullets placed in his skull." More gasps were released and Dean whimpered again, tears soaked his tiny face, drowning out his miniature features.

But as the demon took a step forward, she started coughing uncontrollably, almost dropping Dean as she did so. Sam edged closer to her carefully, seeing her coughing fit as an opportunity to grab Dean; Dean had also chosen this moment to kick and punch frantically. Jody released a piercing scream before thick black smoke shot from her mouth and she fell limply to the ground, Dean still in her arms.

Dean released another cry when they hit the floor before clambering out of Jody's now loose grip and limping towards Sam, obviously he'd hurt his leg during the fall. "Sammy," Dean whimpered in a hushed voice, burying his tear covered face into Sam's neck. At that moment his older brother was barely recognisable, he was just a scared child.

"Did you do that?" Sam asked, looking up at Castiel who walked over to the checkout, picking up the paper bags full of supplies Sam had yet to pay for.

"No." he replied, walking back over to them, resting a hand on Sam's shoulder. "Only something extremely powerful is capable of that."

"Like what?" Sam asked whilst comforting Dean

"I don't know and that's what's most troubling about this situation." Suddenly they weren't in the store anymore; Sam, Castiel and Dean were all standing in the centre of bobby's living room. Onlookers who had witnessed the strange events stared on in disbelief; after blinking a couple of times the whole commotion was erased from their memories leaving them dazed and confused.

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AN: Here's the next chapter, sorry it's a little dark. (not sorry) Did anyone see the twist coming? Am I too predictable? I'm hoping to get another one up tomorrow as it's only a short one. New characters are introduced soon, would love some suggestions (make sure they correspond with the episodes these are based around) and I would really appreciate some chaotic baby-sitting scenarios that could take place. Please review as I love hearing your input.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"What the hell was that?" Sam tightened his grip on Dean despite the familiar surroundings he could now see. Bobby was still at the library, probably would be for hours searching for the correct books to research; this meant Bobby's house was empty. Jody lay stationary on the floor a couple of feet away from them, energy drained by the demonic possession; she would wake up in a couple of hours and not remember any of this. Even though Sam knew it was demon that was in control of her body, he didn't feel comfortable around her after hearing the words she had spoken.

"A demon possessed Ms Mills, evidently attempting to kill Dean; or at least spy on the two of you. Those were probably her orders." Castiel glanced over Jody's body, expressionless.

"Demons are spyin' on us now? Well tha's grea'!" Dean said pulling away from Sam now confident that he was safe.

"Thanks for saving us like that, Cas; I should have done the tests, I should have known she was possessed. Damn it!" Sam was angry at himself for almost losing his brother to a demon.

"I's okay, Sammy. I didn' wealise she wa' a demon either." Dean, even at this age was still trying to defend and protect Sam.

"You're four though, Dean. You can't even dress yourself; I was so worried about being a bad brother, I almost let a demon walk out of a store with you." Sam wouldn't forgive himself, even if Dean did.

"Bu' Cas save' us, so i's okay." Dean beamed at Sam, "An' I coul' ge' dresse', I jus' needed a lickle hewp." Sam laughed at Dean's bid at masculinity.

Castiel crouched down so he was eye level with Dean. "Are you injured at all?" Castiel asked, placing a hand on Dean's forehead after Dean had turned to face him.

"I'm fine, Cas. I's jus' my ankle kinda hur's" Dean sniffed, wiping his nose on the sleeve of his coat. Castiel closed his eyes for a moment, healing Dean of his injury. "Than's." Dean touched where his ankle had been hurting moments ago, "Bu' wha'-" Dean fell limp in Castiel's arms.

Sam rushed towards the angel who was now placing Dean onto the couch. "What's wrong with him?" Sam's voice was hurried and anxious.

"Nothing is wrong with him." castiel said, staring down at the now motionless Dean. "He's just sleeping. I thought it would be wise to place him in this trance. The experience at the store was very traumatic for him at this age. He's emotional and unpredictable; he's vulnerable Sam." Castiel was now staring at Sam, his eyes bearing into Sam's own.

"Do you think demons know about his 'transformation' now?" Sam asked. He was worried what would happen to his brother if their enemies were to get their hands on him; like castiel said 'he's vulnerable'.

"I think we can assume the demon we just faced has informed their superiors of the change in Dean's physical being. There are many individuals that would wish revenge upon your brother and this would provide them with the perfect opportunity for them to deliver their vengeance" Sam nodded solemnly; he had already considered the possibilities. "I also predict that the angels have gained knowledge of the situation and are concocting a plan to take advantage of Dean's recent alteration." Castiel had walked back towards Jody, Sam following to help him move the passed-out sheriff.

"Why would the angels advantage of this?" Sam asked while placing an arm around Jody.

"Sam, they are angels." Castiel said this as if it were a plausible excuse; and to Sam, it was.

"I mean, how would they take advantage of this? What would they do?" They had now lowered Jody's body onto an armchair.

"Although your brother still possesses his memories, and his attitude, he has the mental capacity of a child. You have probably noticed the short attention span, the excessive excitement and the general immature behaviour." Castiel explained to Sam.

"Well, that just sounds like how Dean usually is." Sam joked; Castiel simply looked at him, head tilted trying to understand the joke before giving up, deciding to continue his explanation of the situation instead.

"Dean still remembers hell and has had recurring nightmares about his time spent there, you couldn't imagine how terrifying that would be, especially now that he is so young. I'm surprised his brain hasn't given up." Castiel was voicing the very thought Sam was thinking earlier. "Dean's coping with all of this reasonably well, considering the circumstances." Castiel looked down at the sleeping figure, studying his tiny features. "He is also very persuadable at this age and I think it's exceedingly likely Zachariah would seize this as an opportunity to convince Dean to say yes to Michael, undoubtedly by using blackmail or other means they see 'fit'."

Sam nodded in agreement, that sounded like something Zachariah would do.

"So what do we do now? We can't fight _anyone_ with Dean in this condition." Castiel nodded in agreement.

"It would be wise to find a new, safer place of residence for you and your brother since your current location will soon become highly talked about among all manner of creatures." There was no asking, no opportunity for Sam to contribute or deny Castiel's help; it was not a suggestion, it was a statement of what would happen.

"Where would we go? We haven't got many friends who would be willing to help out." Sam racked his brain for someone they could leave Dean with while he and Bobby investigated possible cures. "Who would believe this anyway, after the sheriff, or demon, I'm not sure I want to start broadcasting this to people, even to people we think we can trust." _Sam _could barely comprehend what was going on, how was someone else going to?

"I can think of one man who you would not need to explain this to." Sam had a sinking feeling in his stomach. "He may not be a conventional choice for a babysitter, but I am certain he is the best option from our limited selection. I also think it may be the safest place for you and Dean, at least you'll be prepared if anything does threaten to harm Dean."

Sam raised his right hand to his forehead, soothing the throbbing sensation that had been verging on painful throughout the day, only now could Sam tend to it. The last 12 hours had been the strangest and most stressful experience in his life and it was just getting worse. Cas was actually suggesting an alcoholic, dead-beat as their best option? The worst part was that Sam was starting to consider the idea as plausible.

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AN: Won't be able to upload a chapter for a couple of weeks so I decided to leave it on a bit of a cliff-hanger. Can you guess who the mysterious babysitter's going to be? I did drop a couple of clues. I also need some ideas for future chapters, ie Characters, scenarios, anything like that and I would love for you to contribute. Thanks for all the positive feedback and I hope you enjoy the rest of the story.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Chuck sat at his laptop, fingers hovering over the keys as he read over the words he had written for the third time. He wanted desperately to delete them and forget that he ever thought of them, that he ever wrote them down after the unpleasant vision he had. He didn't want them to come true; but, he knew they would, just like every over messed up thing related to Winchesters and their 'friends'. And although he had anticipated what was going to happen- and edited the majority of adverbs used- he practically jumped out of his uncomfortable wooden chair and into one of the kitchen cabinets when a gust of wind caused papers that were scattered across his table fly astray, finding new, temporary positions at various sections of the room. Chuck sighed at the idea of having to pick everything up and return them to their original positions, well a heap on the table.

Castiel dusted his trench coat with one hand; his other was currently being gripped tightly by an uneasy, wobbling toddler who Chuck vaguely recognised from his vision. An aura similar to elegance surrounded the angel as he surveyed the room, most likely determining the possible breaches of the vicinity where creatures could break in- or toddlers could break out. Sam on the other hand couldn't be less graceful; it's not that he displayed many elegant features often- neither Winchester brother did- but he seemed even more unsteady than usual. He swayed slightly when they first appeared, almost dropping the grocery bags in his arms as he reached out to grab onto the door frame with one hand in order to regain his balance; his other hand was also being gripped by the extremely young version of Dean Winchester. The toddler looked like he was going to be sick, eyes wide, face rather pale and legs trembling, only standing thanks to the two men holding his hands to support his tiny figure; when he realised Chuck was gaping at him he shuffled behind Castiel's closest leg in order to avoid the unwanted attention.

Chuck raised his right hand to his forehead, covering his eyes from the insane image in front of him. Why did these things always have to happen to him? Why couldn't he have had a book series in which the characters remained in the pages or at least one that didn't revolve around the apocalypse? Removing his hand revealed the scene he hoped wasn't real remained in his living room; he reached for the empty glass next to his laptop and poured himself a glass of, well he wasn't too sure what it was but he drank it anyway, in one swift motion before pouring himself a second helping.

"Hello Chuck." Castiel said, not paying much attention to the child clinging to his leg.

"Uh, hi." Chuck sighed, unsure what to do next. Was he supposed to speak first? What was he supposed to say if that was the Case? _Tough break with the age regression and all; how's the whole apocalypse thing going?_ He tugged at the hem of his t-shirt, straightening the un-ironed, stained shirt as much as he could.

After a moment Castiel spoke up, providing an explanation for their presence, "As you already know, we're here because we need your assistance. If you didn't, Dean's transformation must be fairly obvious to you by now." Dean ducked his head out from behind the angel's leg; he was tiny in comparison, his head barely reached the angel's knee and his arms only just reached around Castiel's leg. After surveying the surroundings Dean stepped forward resignedly, deciding that he no longer required Castiel's leg for protection.

"Yeah, some bitch though' i' woul' be funny to may me loo' lie some kid!" Chuck assumed Dean was going for angry but the high-pitched voice, absent consonants and the miniature scrunched up features did not achieve the desired effect, instead Chuck wasn't sure whether to laugh or scold the child for swearing; He settled on neither. Chuck had always been intimidated by the older Winchester in previous encounters; but now, with Dean looking like this? Well, he was just rather bewildered. Chuck shook his head hoping all of this, as well as almost everything else that recently occurred in his life, was just an alcohol enthused hallucination.

"I know, I know what happened; just like I know you want to stay here until you can find her." Chuck said, drinking half of the amber liquid in the glass. _Why me? _He thought to himself as he swallowed the mouthful.

Sam smiled weakly, "We thought this was the safest place for Dean. If he's here, with you, demons can't get to him because of the archangel protecting you. They'd be too scared to come anywhere near you,"

"Or too stupi' to be a pwoblem if they di'!" Dean contributed to his brother's point.

"And if anything else supernatural related does decide to come after us, well, you'd know in advance." Sam continued after Dean's interruption.

Chuck huffed, "But, I'm not good with kids, I-I-" he drank another sip of his drink, hoping it would stop his stuttering, "I'm not cut out to be a babysitter." He glanced at the bottle that was nearly empty longingly, the idea of being left alone with a child terrified him. He had to find a way out of this situation.

"Why would your incapability of looking after infant goats stop you from helping us? And why would you sit on babies?" Castiel asked, looking as confused as ever.

Ignoring Castiel's questions, Dean rocked on the balls of his feet in aggravation. "I'm no' a ki' an' I don' nee' babysi'ing! I'm still me!" Dean protested angrily, jolting his arms to display the level his frustration further. Chuck sighed again at the child's reaction, Sam looked down at his brother almost embarrassed and Castiel seemed rather confused by the whole ordeal. Chuck rubbed his eyes; this was even worse than looking after a regular toddler, this kid had the attitude of a fully grown Dean Winchester.

"Please Chuck, it will only be for a few days, and it's not like you're going to have to look after him. Me and Cas can do that; we just need somewhere to stay. We're not safe at Bobby's anymore and I think we'd be a little conspicuous at a motel." Sam said as he gestured at his brother with his head, his voice was drenched with desperation. "And you kind of owe us." Chuck looked at him expectantly, wanting him to elaborate. Every time the Winchesters have paid him a visit he was always dragged into some messed up situation involving angels, demons or ghosts. "I mean, we're kind of the reasons you get paid, right?"

Chuck sighed for what felt like the millionth time that day, "Fine, I guess you can stay here for a few days." Sam had a point- even if he wasn't paid that much, it was still financing- and he couldn't kick them out in this state, not after the things they'd been through over the past 48 hours. He could see how worried and exhausted the three of them looked- Castiel only worried with the ever present look of confusion- Chuck did have some morals, even if it wasn't that many.

"Thank you. We already have supplies so we shouldn't be too much of a hindrance." Castiel said while Sam placed the bags from the store on the table that was covered in scrunched up paper, pens and other writing equipment.

"There's a spare bedroom upstairs. It's pretty big; should be big enough for you three to stay in, but there's only one bed, so…"Chuck explained while scratching the back of his head, he hoped this default in accommodation might get him out of playing host.

"That's more than sufficient, I don't need to sleep and Dean is small enough to be placed anywhere." Castiel replied, shattering Chuck's hopes of avoidance.

"I'm no' a plan' Cas!" Dean moaned, walking towards the table dragging Zeppelin behind him.

"I know that Dean. Why would I mistake you for vegetation?" Castiel asked, confused by Dean's confirmation of his species.

Dean rolled his eyes as he climbed onto one of the chairs circling the table, reaching for the glass that held an inch of Chuck's most recent drink. After the day he'd had, he would have been more than contempt to drink himself into oblivion.

"Dean, you can't drink whiskey!" Sam scolded, snatching the glass out of Dean's hands, spilling some of it onto Chuck's discarded work.

"Why no'?" Dean protested, crossing his tiny arms over his chest- Zeppelin in the middle of his arms and chest.

"Because you're four years old! Do you have any idea what this could do to you at this age?" Sam asked, meaning it rhetorically.

"Ge' me drunk hopefully!" Dean argued, oblivious of the possible health repercussions alcohol could cause on a child.

_Great_, Chuck thought to himself, _I'm stuck with a foul-mouthed toddler who has a drinking problem and demons trying to kill him. Is this seriously my life?_

"I'm sorry Dean, but you can't drink anything alcoholic." Sam said trying to reason with his stubborn brother.

"Dis is dumb an' I hay i'!" Dean whined slumping in his chair, pouting as he stared at the floor.

Sam handed Chuck the half empty bottle of, what Chuck now knew was, whiskey and the glass that only had drops left in it, giving him a knowing look. Chuck then placed the bottle in one of the highest shelves, certain Dean would not be able reach it, and drank the remainder of whiskey in the glass. _Waste not, want not_, he reasoned with himself as he drank it, wincing a tad at the taste.

Sam rooted through the grocery bags, after looking through the second one he revealed the object he had been looking for, a plastic box containing a slice of pie. "Here, instead of whiskey you can have pie."

Dean's face lit up at the site of the slice of apple pie, he ate happily when it was placed in front of him along with a plastic fork Sam also pulled out of one of the bags. At least now they all knew how to distract him when he was on the verge of a tantrum: pie. After writing so many stories about the two brothers, Chuck knew the extent of Dean's passion that he felt towards pie; it was broke even with his love of alcohol, women and his beloved car, all of which were now unavailable to him. Everyone said Sam was Dean's weakness, but Sam was sure that one day Dean's love of pie would get him killed, or at least maimed. He only mumbled a short complaint about the plastic fork but was otherwise contempt with his treat.

"I better call Bobby; let him know you agreed to let us stay here and check where he is with research." Sam stepped away from the table, throughout the entire conversation his eyes lingered on the kitchen table where his brother sat eating, Castiel now sitting in the chair next to Dean's. he tried not to show how frustrated he was to learn that Bobby hadn't found any information about age regression or how to revert it. Sam had only been able to research for 2 hours when dean had been sleeping but he hadn't found anything either and their possible leads were dwindling. All he wanted was to change his brother back, and quickly; toddler Dean was even more annoying than adult Dean, and that was saying something.

Dean finished his pie, changed into his batman footie pyjamas and then sat watching cartoons for an hour with Castiel- both were entranced by the bright colours and the repetitive storylines- before falling asleep on the sofa, a thumb dangling loosely in his mouth and Zeppelin hugged tightly to his chest. Sam didn't want to disturb his brother, he'd had a traumatic day and deserved some rest, in fact Sam did as well. Sam was hesitant to leave him, he suspected Dean would encounter nightmares while he slept, not being sure whether his age would enhance the intensity and frequency of the nightmares, although Sam could barely remain standing. Finally he agreed when Castiel reassured him that he would watch over Dean to ensure he remained safe during the night.

Chuck had already gone to bed, slightly less annoyed than when the Winchesters had first appeared in his house; he couldn't help it, seeing how cute Dean was when he wasn't swearing eased some of his fears- not all of them though. Castiel sat on the couch next to Dean throughout the night, not wavering his gaze once; he had always felt a duty to protect the Winchesters and this feeling had become more profound after Dean's transformation. Castiel considered whether it was the subconscious of his vessel since Jimmy Novak was a father; he didn't consider the thought too much, only watched Dean like he had sworn to do and placed a soothing hand on his forehead when he began to stir midway through the night, ending the nightmare had begun to experience meaning Dean slept peacefully throughout the rest of the night.

Sam, in contrast, tossed and turned in his bed during the majority of the night. He should be researching, he should be tracking that damn witch, he should be finding a way to return Dean to his original age. But he had been told to wait, Bobby had given him explicit instructions that they would go tomorrow, together. This witch was powerful and powerful meant dangerous.

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AN: so, I'm back. I've missed the internet since almost died without it, even if it was only two weeks. Thank you for all the reviews, I loved the Garth one and had seriously considered that myself; he would be such a cool babysitter. But, I have included him in the story as a small cameo/off-screen appearance. I could only check my emails a couple of times while I was away but whenever I did it put a smile on my face. You wouldn't believe how much I missed Supernatural, I could only get it in Italian at 2 am on a Monday, although the street my apartment was on was called Rafael and I know it's not spelled the same but I thought it was pretty cool. Also met a guy called Sam who was the spitting image of Mark Pellegrino which is pretty weird. Anyway there some facts you probably didn't want to know.

Hope you enjoy the chapter and the next one will be up as soon as possible (don't worry action starts again soon). As always reviews are welcome and appreciated, would love some prompts and suggestions. But for now enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Waking up to the faint sound of SpongeBob Squarepants' grating laugh was not part of Chuck's usual routine, but then again his life hadn't exactly been usual since discovering he was a profit of the Lord and everything within his books were actually real. He debated with himself whether to venture downstairs or not; on one hand he wanted to discover if his temporary tenants had destroyed his house yet, but on the other hand, he didn't. Finally he came to the conclusion that he should leave his bed and try to help his guests on their quest to restore Dean to his original age, the sooner he was fixed, the sooner they were out of his house; also his room kind of smelt funny, so there was that as well. But, as soon as he descended the stairs and walked into the living room he immediately changed his mind on what he should do.

Dean, whose size and appearance still amazed Chuck since he still wasn't accustomed to them yet and still half expected it all to be a horrible dream, was sat cross-legged on the floor, his face inches from the TV. He was engrossed by the sight of the yellow sponge and pink starfish that were irritating the green octopus and causing him endless problems, Chuck thought the scenario seemed familiar to his own life and felt a kinship for the green octopus, but he quickly abandoned this notion and forgot the tortured octopus. A few feet behind Dean, Castiel was sat on the couch, head tilted to the side, also entranced and probably confused by the children's show. Turning towards the kitchen- and more importantly his alcohol supply (this whole situation was unbearable while sober) - Chuck saw Sam, facing the window, in mid-conversation on the phone.

"Yeah, I guess. Bobby, I understand; he's going to be pissed though. You know that, right?" Sam nodded his head, not to anyone in particular just to himself. He had not yet noticed Chuck and therefore didn't lower his voice any further or take his phone call elsewhere like he habitually did, he didn't find it necessary since he was not worried about being overheard by Castiel or Dean given that their attention was transfixed on the television. "Okay, Bobby. I'll be there as soon as possible." Sam nodded once more as he hung up the phone, ending his conversation with Bobby and transitioning into a new, more heated one with Chuck. Chuck's face had fallen at the word "I", not we, "I".

"What do you mean _you'll_ be there? Where's there? And why only _you_?" Chuck's speech was rushed and uneven, the possibility of being left alone with a four year old child terrified him, but a four year old Dean Winchester, well…

"Uhh," Sam was not prepared for the unexpected questions and wasn't sure how to break it to Chuck, "Well, Bobby's found a lead; we think it could be the witch." Sam explained, not really answering Chuck's question, just reciting what he had told himself numerous times already.

"Gweat, le's ge' goin' then." Dean had now abandoned SpongeBob and was standing beside Chuck, eager to help find the witch that had turned him into a child and claim his revenge.

"Dean, we're going to hunt a _witch_." Sam said, emphasising the word witch, as if the sentance was the ultimate answer and explained everything; to everyone one else it did, but not Dean.

"So?" Dean asked, prolonging the word so that it had way too many syllables than it should have, that was something children could do that had always puzzled Chuck. _Why are so many syllables necessary? _It was mainly the writer within him that was frustrated by this.

"So, you can't come." Sam looked sympathetically at his brother whose expression was becoming more childlike, his bottom lip trembled slightly as he bit the inside of his gum to prevent himself from crying; he rubbed his forehead, a shocking pain had chosen the most inconvenient time to make itself known.

"I'm perfwectly capa-capab-" he threw his arms up in frustration. "I can hun' a witch, Sammy. I've done i' loa's o' times." Dean had opted for anger, needing something to drive away the oncoming tears; the pain in his head intensified by the minute making it harder not to cry.

"Dean, you're not coming and that's final." Sam's voice had risen, he was attempting to use the tone his father had used to make the two boys shut up and do as they were told; unfortunately Sam had little practise of this and instead of sounding forceful, he had sounded condescending which only infuriated Dean further.

"You're jus' gonna leave me here wi' Chuck an' Cas? I thin' I'd be safer wi' the witch." Dean received a questioning look from Cas who seemed slightly offended, whereas Chuck had not heard the comment as he was preoccupied with pouring himself a drink. Dean folded his arms and raised a tiny eyebrow, looking from Chuck to Sam as if to emphasise his inept ability to be a responsible adult.

Sam sighed, "Not exactly, Cas is coming with me to Bobby's."

Castiel displayed no emotional reaction to the discovery of his role in the witch hunt, only focused his eyes more intently on Sam. Chuck had now drunk his first glass of whiskey and almost spat it out again when hearing this part, breaking into a coughing fit when he actually managed to swallow his drink. "I'm going to have to look after Dean on my own?" he asked between coughs, "The apocalypse is going to be my entire fault." He said to himself, collapsing on to one of the vacant chairs, unable to stand in this state of shock.

"Why does Cas ge' to go?" Dean stamped his foot and began to clench his fists, controlling his emotions seemed a lot harder now he was four years old and his headache was just becoming worse by the minute; all he wanted to do was lie on the floor cry, but he had to compose himself if he was to convince Sam to take him on the witch hunt. Dean was surprisingly accustomed to this from the numerous times he had begged his father to let him tag along on a hunt when he was younger, he just hadn't expected to be doing it when he was 30 years old.

"Because, I need back up; Bobby's in a wheelchair and you're, uh," Sam tried to find a way to say it without hurting his brothers feelings, Sam could see Dean was already pretty upset and he didn't want to make the situation any worse. "Well, you're out of commission so Cas is the best option we've got." Despite choosing his words carefully, Sam hadn't accomplished his task of not upsetting Dean further. He decided to soften his tone after seeing his brother's hurt look, "I'm sorry Dean. But the sooner we catch this witch, the sooner you'll be back to normal." _And out of my house, _Chuck thought to himself once again.

"An' I'd jus' slow you down?" Dean asked resentfully, speaking the words his brother had been secretly thinking.

Sam crouched down so he was eye level with Dean. "No; it's just, it's more dangerous for you now and we think the witch has a grudge against you as well. The first time we met her she ignored me and tried to kill you straight away, and now this? You coming along would be like handing you to her on a silver platter. You're safer here. It will only be for a short amount of time, I promise." Dean didn't look Sam in the eyes; he held his chin close to his chest, hoping Sam wouldn't notice the tears forming in his eyes.

It was a lot easier to hide the tears when Sam had been standing up and not crouching next to him. This was becoming very annoying for Dean, everyone crouching down, as if it was a representation of mutual respect. But it wasn't, it was the complete opposite; them crouching only emphasised how small he was. Forgetting this thought, he nodded his head reluctantly, partly to rid his eyes of the tears, and gripped Zeppelin tighter in his arms. He had found since being transformed into a child, the familiar teddy had grounded him and given him a form of reassurance when he was feeling emotional; it troubled him a little at how dependant on the teddy he was becoming, how juvenile he was becoming.

"Okay then," Sam stood up and grabbed his duffel bag that was on the table, "Oh," he turned back towards Dean, "Be safe, and careful, and no alcohol, and don't take advantage of Chuck, and Chuck," he then turned to face the man sat on the chair, head in his hands; despite the lack of eye contact, Sam continued to speak, "Everything you might need should be in those bags, and-" Dean exhaled loudly, "Fine," he said with a slight smile. "Let's go." He nodded towards Castiel who reciprocated the gesture.

Chuck looked up worriedly at the three other men, well two men and the child, in the kitchen trying to think of something to say. But before a word could escape his mouth, Sam and Castiel had vanished, leaving Dean staring at him expectantly, rubbing his forehead with the heel of his hand as he let out a soft groan. "My hea' hurts." Chuck sighed at the realisation of the position he had found himself in; he was in way over his head. "An' I'm bored." Yep, he was screwed.

* * *

AN: So, the next chapter's up. I hope your all enjoying the story so far, all of your reviews are lovely, like always they are highly appreciated and your comments are considered when I'm writing, thank you for all of the Faves and follows. As I am uploading this I've just seen that I've gotten 2,500 views, and since this is my first actual story I'm really happy with that, so thank you all! I promise to upload the next chapter as soon as I can, just been doing a lot of research for a kind of OC that comes into the story pretty soon. Hope you will all enjoy it and there's more action in the next chapter (I should _really_ stop giving you guys spoilers, oh well).

But until then, enjoy.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Chuck really hated children, even when he was a child he had hated the vast majority of his peers and could only assume they had felt the same way bearing in mind their attitude and behaviour towards him when growing up was not the friendliest. He didn't know how to talk to kids, or play with them, and he certainly didn't know how to look after them; the last thing that had been under his protection was a plant, which had died, well, he thinks it died, he's not too sure. But the point is, if he couldn't keep a plant alive for longer than one week, how was he supposed to cope with a living, breathing child? Being burdened with an ordinary child would have been bad enough, but, no, this was worse, much, much worse. (Compared to this the plant would be like caring for a stone) This was Dean Winchester, and the Winchesters are magnets for all things supernatural and deadly; nothing had tried to kill his plant and yet that had still died under his watch, but Dean had been four for less than 48 hours and already had almost been killed by a demon and a witch and had half of the supernatural population gunning for him. Damn it, babysitting him was going to be hard.

"My hea' hur's." Dean repeated, although this time it was more of a whine rather than a statement. His quiet, shaky voice had snapped Chuck out of his thoughts of helplessness and self-pity to what was unfortunately the real world (which was also somehow his fantasy world).

"Oh, right. Well," Chuck began to stutter, _this cannot be happening to me_ repeating in his mind; a common mantra that had been introduced to his life when he first met the Winchesters and had been growingly present in his life ever since. Dean observed him intently, rubbing his head with more force while Chuck rooted through the bags of supplies Sam had left on the table, hoping he would find something that would be useful in solving the headache problem. Chuck almost yelped in relief when he found a pack of baby aspirin in one of the bags and after reading the safety instructions four times (he wasn't going to be the reason Dean died from an OD of baby aspirin), he filled a green plastic sippy cup with a cartoon dinosaur on it that he had also found in one of the bags, with water. He thrust the cup, which luckily had the lid on, and the 2 pills, which was the recommended dose for a child Dean's age, into Dean's little hands, waiting for the young boy to consume.

Dean stared from the cup up to Chuck, "I don' like wa'er." His voice was flat and unemotional. He held the pills in one clenched fist, careful not to drop them.

Chuck stared back, confused by Dean's statement. "What do you mean you don't like water?"

"I can' take de pills with wa'er. I don' like i'." Dean said as if his preferred tastes were common knowledge.

"Fine," Chuck said after a moment of frustration, deciding that throwing Dean through a window would be immoral and irresponsible. He snatched the cup from Dean's outstretched hand and searched through the bags once more to find some sort of juice. After finding a carton orange juice, he emptied the water out of the cup and refilled it with orange juice, impatiently handing it back to Dean who was now sitting on one of the chairs.

Dean accepted the drink and placed the two pills into his mouth. Chuck watched to ensure Dean swallowed the medication- evidently, the pills must have been foul-tasting if the faces Dean pulled were anything to go by; either that or it was the orange juice that he had insisted upon. Chuck wouldn't have been surprised if it was, in fact the orange juice that had the disgusting taste and Dean was just too stubborn to reveal that. _I have been writing about the Winchesters too long._

"Are you okay now?" Chuck asked after surveying Dean for a short period of time, he assumed the answer would be 'yes' since Dean had ceased the incessant massaging of his forehead several minutes ago and was now sitting peacefully on the chair, swinging his legs back and forth. His legs were too short so his feet didn't even make contact with the floor, making the swinging motion rhythmic and unbroken.

"Yeah, I guess." Chuck had only noticed then that Dean had a slight lisp whenever he said the letter 's', but Chuck figured that was because of his age since most kids had a lisp when they were four, or around that age. "Bu' I'm still bored. An' I'm hungwy." That was when Chuck noticed the mispronunciation of the letter 'r' as well and briefly remembered his struggles with those two letters when he was a child. No matter how infuriated he found himself because Dean's actions, he couldn't stay mad at him for long due to his tiny figure and adorable characteristics. Chuck decided not to mention this because if he did, he knew Dean would try to get away with murder. _I have been writing about the Winchesters __**far**__ too long._

Chuck leant forward against the counter-top, using his hands to support his weight, he closed his eyes and sighed as he considered how to deal with the new demand from Dean. _How can a little kid need so much stuff?_ After Chuck had turned his back on him, Dean had decided to get some food for himself but didn't realise how far away the bags were from the edge of the table and how short his arms were. He had managed to balance himself on the chair and leant as far forward as he could, but it wasn't far enough. Only his fingertips could reach the desired bag and after losing what little balance he did have, he toppled backwards, taking the bag with him causing all of its contents to scatter across the table and floor.

The metallic sound of tins colliding with the hard surface of the floor caught Chuck's attention causing him to spin around revealing the scene of a giggling child, munching happily on a pack of potato chips that had landed in his lap. Dean shone him a wide smile as Chuck buried his face into his palm.

Dean mumbled something unintelligible, he was even harder to understand through a mouthful of chips, and after two failed attempts at asking, he paused to swallow. "Ca' we go to de par'? I haven' been since I was a ki'. Or, ya know, de firs' time I was a ki'."

Chuck didn't remove his hand from his face for quite some time. Dean saw this as a sign to shut up and continued to eat, occasionally offering some food or drink to Zeppelin when he was certain Chuck wasn't looking. The entire time Chuck had his palm to his face he repeatedly thought: _Why can't you just be a plant? At least plants don't ask to go to the park._

* * *

AN: Here's the next chapter, I know it's pretty short but the next ones really long and I didn't want to cut this part from the story (I think it's cute and it's kind of important to the story). As always, thank you for the reviews, favourites, follows and views. They all mean a lot to me. I will upload the next chapter as soon as possible and I'm trying to find a cover photo for the story, the website keeps on making feel guilty I haven't got one (btw if any of you have ideas for a cover or want to draw one I would be so, so grateful since I am terrible at drawing, my twitter account is lizzieC13. I would also love some prompts for future stories since I can't think of any and need some inspiration, but be warned I barely update on my blog) Until the next chapter's up, enjoy!


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Like most functional (well, at least semi-functional) fully grown adults, Chuck rarely spent any free time he had at the local park; it would be rather weird if he did considering he had no children. He'd walked past it quite frequently, but he had never really spent time there. Parents scared him, possibly more than the children themselves; he had often avoided the park so he was not forced into confrontations.

The entire park was covered in a thick, white blanket of snow and every piece of equipment was occupied with hyperactive children; after seeing the quantity of children there, Dean's expression tightened, his brow furrowing as he tried to find a vacant activity. Chuck stood inches behind him, hesitant to dither his gaze from Dean for even a second in case something attacked the de-aged hunter; knowing the Winchester luck, the second Chuck blinked a werewolf would jump out from behind the jungle gym. The layer of snow covering the ground reached to Dean's knees, creating difficulty for him to walk, especially with the copious layers of clothing Chuck had dressed him in before they had left the house despite Dean's stubborn refusal.

Dean understood Chuck's obsessive tendencies of protecting him, he'd behaved the same way whenever he looked after Sam when they were younger, but being constantly followed and scrutinized by the prophet was putting a downer on Dean's day out. Not to mention the looks they were receiving from other guardians at the park, and they were receiving _a lot _of looks.

Dean felt utterly embarrassed when he had tripped on a rock that was hidden by the snow, falling face first into the cushioning blanket. Chuck had quickly grabbed him by the hood of the green jacket he wore underneath the brown leather jacket and yanked him out of the snow. Dean wriggled under his grasp, he hated being manhandled, he was thirty years old for Christ's sake and he was being held in mid-air by his hood. When he demanded, "pu' me down!" they were quickly surrounded by a group of handbag wielding, angry moms, nannies and one man. After a minute of the guardians' unmerciful stares, Chuck placed Dean back onto the ground. When he did so, a middle-aged, bleach blonde woman hurried over to Dean and crouched down to his level as he wiped the melting snow off of his face. _Again with the crouching_, Dean thought to himself.

The woman must have been around 35 years old and was dressed in a white, puffy coat, pink skinny jeans and high heels. Her hair was perfectly curled with a leopard print faux fur headband. She was not dressed appropriately for the park to say the least. Her hair and make-up suggested she was visiting a casino or 5* restaurant, not a children's playground.

"Are you okay sweetie? Did this man try to hurt you?" she asked in a twee, sickeningly sweet voice, she sounded like she had been pulled right out of a cheesy pantomime.

Dean laughed at the question. Chuck's expression had hardened, and then lightened after he felt self-conscious and didn't want to appear like a kidnapper until finally he settled on somewhat offended. "Loo' lady, this is my fwiend chu'. He's looin' afer me while my bwother is away. He's no' twyin' to ki'nap me; he wouln't be abwel to if he twied! An' don' call me swee' heart!" Dean said proudly, regardless of his struggle of pronouncing the majority of the words. The questioning woman looked rather puzzled by the child's response; she had not expected him to understand what she had been implying or to address her as "lady."

"Oh, well, okay. I apologise." She had released her protective grip on Dean's shoulder where a size-reduced handprint remained in its usual position. She looked towards Chuck as she stood up, rather embarrassed by her and the rest of the crowd's incorrect assumption; although, a lot of the crowd had dispersed, only a few onlookers remained. "I'm sorry, it's just, well, you don't look like the paternal sort and you were behaving pretty strange, I mean following him at such a close distance; so when this little guy," Dean looked up just in time to notice the flash of hatred in her eyes that she directed at him that accompanied the hiss of the word "guy", obviously resentful of being humiliated by who she thought was an ordinary four year old. "Started kicking up a fuss, well, we thought we should investigate." She smiled flirtatiously, attempting to make Chuck forget the entire fiasco.

"Yeah, I understand. It's fine. I'm just not used to babysitting; but I get it. You can never be too safe, right?" Chuck said, laughing nervously as he approached the end of the sentence. This was becoming very awkward, very quickly; he was terrible at talking to parents already, and now his confidence had taken a hit after being accused of attempted kidnapping.

"Yes, well, have a nice time at the playground; play nicely now." She glanced down judgingly at Dean once again before turning her attention back to Chuck. "By the way, I don't think leather is an appropriate choice of clothing, it may upset or offend some of the vegetarian children." Dean raised a confused eyebrow, annoyed with her insult of his clothing as tugged on his jacket.

"I's not weal yeather!" Dean responded, crossing his arms and sticking out his bottom lip. "Sammy wouln't le' me ge' a weal one. An' by the way," Dean imitated, "maybe you shoul' min' your own fweakin' business!" the woman was once again taken back by Dean's response.

"You should watch your mouth young man, I don't know what pig raised you but I have standards and I do not want my children, or any of their children at that matter," she gestured to an empty space where there was once a speculating crowd, "to pick up such foul language." She stared directly at Chuck, "You should find a reinforcement solution for when he acts out or misbehaves; I use a demerits board with my son, Scott, although he rarely requires it; he's an angel. But some children can be more troublesome than others." She glared down at Dean again.

Before Chuck could apologise for Dean's behaviour, Dean piped up angrily, waving Zeppelin in his hand as he spoke each syllable. "Well, unforshunaly I don' live in a pwison or nunnewy. Now if you'd excuse me sister psycho I'm gonna play over there in my yeather jacket and swear to my hear's conten'!" and with that he stormed off determinedly towards a large pile of snow, dragging the large teddy behind him.

"You really should introduce more discipline to his routine; he has no respect for his elders. If you don't discipline children at this age it can have dramatic effects on their future development; I read a book on it. Who knows how he might end up like when he's older? Some child psychologists suggest that a lack of discipline during early childhood could cause criminal activity in future life." Chuck almost choked; the irony of what she was saying was unbelievable. _If you only knew_, he thought to himself. He was unable to respond, instead he just nodded. "Are you coming to the Christmas charity fundraiser tomorrow? There's the children's nativity and a carol concert taking place. We're trying to raise money for new computers at the school." She had suddenly taken the joyful tone of a PTA member trying to squeeze money out of her prey.

"Um," Chuck was stumped, paralyzed by her soccer mom venom, "Sorry, I don't think I can attend." Chuck's tone sounded more like a question, as if he hoped she would assure him that was the correct answer. Chuck thought about Sam's promise and hoped that Dean would have left by tomorrow night.

The woman nodded, but refused to surrender. "If you change your mind, here's the number where you can buy tickets from." she handed him a blue, frilly business card (if you could call it that), "Tell them Sherry told you to call, that's me by the way, Sherry." She confirmed, gesturing to herself when Chuck's puzzled expression did not change. She stared at him expectantly, waiting for him to provide his name.

"Oh, uh, I'm Chuck." He said accepting her weak handshake.

"My personal number's on their too, Chuck, you can call anytime. Bye, hopefully I'll see you again soon; and merry Christmas, Chuck." She breathed in his ear, brushing her left hand across his shoulder seductively, the blinding reflection from her ring finger caught Chuck's eye in the winter sunlight. Chuck laughed nervously, uncertain on how to reply without offending her or giving her the wrong impression at the same time. Luckily she trotted away towards a group of gossiping women before he could make the situation any worse.

"And she says we set a bad example for our kids. God, if she spent a little less time criticizing our parenting techniques and a little more time actually parenting maybe her kids wouldn't be such brats." The ranting voice belonged to a woman who was nowhere near as glamorous as Sherry, but she was just as beautiful, if not more. Her face was friendlier and more youthful, her brunette hair scraped back into a messy ponytail and her bright blue eyes sparkled almost as brightly as Sherry' wedding ring. Worn jeans and a green coat made her appear a lot more motherly than Sherry even though she had to be at least 10 years younger.

A little girl stood next to her, she was almost identical, the only difference being the age, a face full of freckles and that her hair was in pigtails instead of a ponytail with an orange bobble hat on her head that covered most of her hair and forehead. The girl smiled widely at Chuck, revealing a missing front tooth as she waved enthusiastically. She looked older than Dean was, and taller, but her eyes displayed a lot more innocence, how a child's eyes were supposed to be.

"Uh, hi," Chuck said, greeting the young mother with a small wave.

"Hi," the woman laughed, "Don't listen to the Stepford wives over there; they think if you don't raise your child to be a mindless robot that is completely dependent and doesn't have a voice of their own, you are a monster of a parent." Chuck was the one who laughed now, comforted that someone else understood how he felt. "I'm Lucy," she held out her hand and Chuck accepted it, noticing how there was no shine on her finger.

"Chuck, I'm Chuck." Lucy smiled, amused by Chuck's awkwardness.

"As in the TV show, that's cool. It's nice to meet you Chuck." The little girl tugged lightly on the sleeve of Lucy's free hand, "Oh, and this is my daughter, Clara." The little girl beamed once again, holding out her tiny hand towards Chuck.

"Nice to meet you." She said happily. Chuck accepted, smiling at the little girl's greeting.

"So, who's yours then? I want to meet this infamous swearing, future criminal; know what I have to look out for in the future." Lucy joked.

"Um, he's over there. That's Dean, playing in the snow." Chuck said, pointing at Dean who was toddling to the top of the large snow pile, finding the task difficult with Zeppelin in his hand.

"Oh, I see what she means. I would get him arrested for that if I were you; or at least sign him up for the 'Scare Them Straight' programme." She joked again.

"I don't think there's much that would scare him." Chuck said causing Lucy to laugh; unknown to her he was deadly serious.

"Can I go say hi?" Clara asked to no-one in particular.

"Of course you can Sweetie; just don't run off too far and I'll be on this bench over here." Lucy said, her voice gradually rising as Clara ran towards Dean. "Come on, available benches at the park are like gold dust." Lucy said as she walked towards a vacant bench, waiting for Chuck to catch up with her.

* * *

Dean had given up trying to reach the top of the snow pile; he wasn't sure why he wanted to reach it anyway, it was just a nagging voice in his head that told him to do it. He sat down defeated in the cold snow; only his arms and bust were visible amongst the powdery snow.

"Hi, I'm Clara."

Dean turned his head, caught off guard by the young girl. She seemed rather uncanny. She wore a light blue toggle coat with multi-coloured tights, a purple skirt and bright red wellington boots. Like Dean, and all the other children in the park, she was wrapped up in several layers of thick clothing, a hat, gloves and a scarf. Unlike Dean, her accessories all matched and were all vibrant orange with a picture of a pink cat on the scarf and hat. She shifted her hat upwards with one since it covered the majority of her forehead, causing her brunette hair to become dishevelled, she held out her hand as she did so. Before Dean could raise his arm in order to reciprocate the greeting, Clara snatched his available hand, shaking his hand and his entire body-or at least the parts that weren't immobilized by the snow- before abruptly releasing her vice like grip.

"You're Dean, right? That's what Chuck said." Dean was about to answer, but before he could she had begun talking again. "Do you wanna play house? I'll be the mommy, you be the daddy and," she looked around her perimeter, searching for a suitable object before her eyes fell on Zeppelin. "And teddy can be the baby." She smiled, impressed with her own logic and imagination.

"Sowwy, s'not weally the game for me. I've kin'a been avoi'ing tha' for mos' of my life; an' I don' think I'm weady for tha' kin'a commitment, I mean we've only just met." He was pretty certain his humour would be lost on the young girl, leaving her oblivious; however, she began to laugh.

"You're funny, and kind of short." Clara responded.

Dean clambered to his feet and stood on his tiptoes. "I'm not shor', I was si'ing down." Even with his efforts to look taller, Dean still didn't even reach the girl's chin.

"How old are you anyway?" she asked, eager to learn more about her new friend.

"I'm," Dean bit the inside of his gum- he was pretty sure he was going to draw blood soon with the number of times he'd chewed on his gum- it felt horrible and just plain wrong saying it aloud. "I'm four."

Clara nodded enthusiastically. "I'm six, nearly seven. My birthday's in two months." She raised two little fingers to illustrate her fact; "You wanna come to my party?" she smiled congratulatory once again, this time for being older, as if that was an outstanding achievement.

"I don't think I'll be around then, sowwy." Dean was a little shocked, this girl was so forward and kind; although Dean wouldn't say it, she was a breath of fresh air in his world of monsters and demons.

Clara's smile began to waver, devastated that her new friend wouldn't be able to attend her party. "Why? Are you going somewhere?" Dean opened his mouth, preparing to weave yet another lie but Clara had already begun talking again. _Wow, this girl talks a lot_, Dean thought to himself as he watched Clara's mouth move at lightning speed. He wasn't really listening, more just watching, astonished that she could talk that quickly. After a minute he tuned back into the one-sided conversation. "So my room might not be orange which sucks." She frowned slightly, obviously disappointed with whatever she had been talking about, her frown instantly changed back to a wide smile though. "That's my favourite colour, orange; but I don't like the fruit, it's icky." Dean nodded, confused how the conversation had arrived at fruit but smiled anyway.

Clara grabbed his free hand and dragged him toward the swings. Two children had just gotten off of them and Clara was going to seize the chance of getting a turn on them. "c'mon," she said in a sing-song voice while dragging Dean behind her.

The two of them swung for a while, Dean struggling at first because of how short his legs were, Clara had jumped off and given him a starter push, much to Dean's dismay and humiliation, and then returned to her own swing. The conversation remained mainly one-sided, Clara discussing her likes, her dislikes, her school and other friends- both real and imaginary. Dean simply nodded once in a while and produced noises that made him sound interested. He didn't mind not talking, he was used to women talking non-stop at him, and this meant he didn't have to come up with any lies about himself.

"So what's your teddy called?" Clara asked, pointing towards the mass of fluff gripped in Dean's arms.

"Zeppelin."

"That's a weird name." Clara pointed out.

"He's named after the band Led Zeppelin, they're my favourite." Dean said, looking down fondly at the teddy in his lap.

Clara tilted her head, "I've never heard of them. My teddy's called Ariel, like the princess. There's this shop where you can buy clothes for teddies, it's really fun. I went there and-" she cut herself off, hopping off of the swing and jogging towards a girl who was sat in the snow, crying to herself; Dean followed her, almost running to keep up with her.

"What's up, Kelly?" Clara knelt down next to the crying girl; she looked around the same age as Clara but was a bit shorter, still taller than Dean, she had light ginger hair and wore a pink hat that matched her coat.

"It's Ryan again, he won't leave me alone." She said between sobs. Clara's expression turned very serious.

"I told you not to go near the jungle gym, he won't be mean if you don't go near there, and don't listen to what he says. Last time I saw him, he yelled at me for no reason." Clara began to rub the girls back; Kelly had been crying so much she had started to hiccup.

"I think he's sad. But he's really angry as well; he was never like this before." Kelly said, every couple of words being punctuated by a hiccup.

Clara looked toward the bench where her mom and Chuck sat, deep in conversation. "Maybe I should tell my mom about him, she said I could tell her anything."

"No!" Kelly cried in protest, "I told my mom and she said I was imagining it. She thinks I'm crazy." Kelly said as she swatted at her tears. Her hazel eyes narrowed when they fell on Dean. "Who's he?" she nodded towards Dean who had been standing silently behind Clara, confused by the two girls' discussion.

"This is Dean, he's my new friend." Clara said, gripping his hand and pulling him forward. "Dean this is Kelly." Clara announced, gesturing towards the red-headed girl who continued to sit on the floor. Dean raised his little hand and smiled as a greeting; Kelly responded with a tragic smile, her eyes were red from excessive crying and surrounded with dark circle from a lack of sleep.

"Who's Ryan?" Dean asked now that he had been acknowledged.

"He was our friend, but he died." Clara said, looking down at her red shoes. Dean wasn't sure what to say, but Clara had begun talking yet again. "But he's still here at the playground."

"Shut up, Clara." Kelly spat, standing up. "He won't believe us anyway."

"I bewieve you." Dean said.

"See," Clara said, smiling at Dean, thankful her new friend didn't let her down.

"So you've seen him?" Dean inquired, raising one eyebrow. The question was directed more towards Clara since she seemed more cooperative.

"Yeah, it's always near the jungle gym, where his memorial is." Clara explained.

"Okay," Dean said, concocting a plan his head.

"Well what's he going to do?" Kelly asked sceptically, "He's just a little kid." Clara shot daggers at her for insulting Dean, but he seemed unaffected by the insult.

"I think I can help. Do you know where I can get some salt around here?"

* * *

AN: Here's the next chapter! Hope you all enjoy it; I had some trouble writing it and am still not entirely happy with it(I rewrote the opening paragraph 7 times). As always thank you for the reviews, favorites and follows; it really means a lot to me. The next chapter should be uploaded pretty soon; but until then, enjoy!


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

"So your just a babysitter?" Lucy asked as they sat down on the bench, brushing off snow that had gathered on the top beforehand. "Most of the babysitter's I've hired in the past are teenage girls; maybe I'd go out more often if there were more sitters like you."

Chuck laughed, rather embarrassed. Was that a compliment or an insult? "Yeah, I'm not a teenage girl, well, I'm not really a babysitter either. But Dean's brother had to go on some, um, business this morning and I sort of owed him a favour, so, I got stuck with him for a couple of days and here we are." Chuck explained. He felt terrible about lying to Lucy, even if it was only partly a lie. He wasn't sure why, they had only just met, but she was the kind of person you instantly took a liking to, someone you trusted and wanted as a friend. She had an aura about her that just screamed honesty and earnestness.

"That's cool, I get being pushed in at the deep end. And I could see you as a babysitter," she paused before adding, "possibly," her voice becoming less convincing with every syllable, "yeah, probably not. But, I mean you wouldn't expect Arnold Schwarzenegger to be a kindergarten teacher and that movie made a whole lot of money." Chuck laughed and nodded in agreement. "So, no children of your own then?" Lucy moved the hello kitty bag off her shoulder and placed it beside her on the bench.

"No, oh god no. I'm not really the 'family man' type of guy; I'm not good with kids." Chuck said, wincing at the thought of him having any children.

"Well, you seem to do well with Dean, he hasn't died yet since you've been minding him, and Clara certainly likes you, so you can't be that terrible with kids." Chuck smiled at her and she returned the friendly gesture. Lucy's smile was incredible, full of hope and pain all at the same time; despite her youth she was extremely wise and experienced in the world, and her smile showed this.

They continued to discuss their lives for a while, throughout their conversation Chuck kept one eye on the two children who were playing happily together. Chuck laughed when he saw Dean's reaction to Clara pushing him on the swing; Lucy looked up after hearing Chuck's laughter and joined in as Dean started wobbling on the unsteady seat that begun to move.

"Dean seems like a good kid. Definitely independent." Lucy said, amused with Dean's refusal to let Clara help him.

"Yeah, he hates being so young." Chuck replied.

"Can't wait to grow up then?"

"Oh, he's desperate to." _Everyone's desperate right now, _he thought to himself as he watched Dean cling to his teddy as he kicked his legs in an unsynchronized manner.

"Clara was the same at that age; she still refuses to let me help her with certain things. It's not as bad now though." Lucy said, waving at Clara who had gone back to swinging, stopping momentarily to return a wave to her mom.

"Clara's a great kid too; she seems really," Chuck paused for a second, searching his vocabulary for the correct word, finally settling for, "interesting."

Lucy laughed, "Yeah, I try to encourage her to be herself. You know, the whole life's profound, be who you want to be. Be unique, be different, be independent; all that fight the power crap." Chuck laughed as well, both content as they fell into a comfortable silence watching Dean and Clara swing back and forth.

Lucy squinted as she watched Clara jump off her swing and run towards Kelly. "Oh no," Lucy sighed, beset with sympathy for the little girl who had gone through so much. Lucy had recently had a heated discussion with Kelly's parents when they had told Lucy they were taking her to therapy now after she claimed to have seen Ryan's ghost. Lucy felt so sorry for her, she had lost her best friend and even her parents weren't being supportive; she had encouraged Clara to talk to her more, make sure she was alright and be a much needed friend. Clara had also been broken up about it for weeks; Clara, Kelly and Ryan had been close friends and losing Ryan really affected her, it had affected the entire town.

"What's wrong?" Chuck asked frantically, eyes darting round the park for any signs of danger, fearful for Dean's well-being.

"It's Kelly; I think she's crying again." Chuck raised an eyebrow, looking from the three children to Lucy. She recognised this as a signal to explain the reason for why the girl frequently cried. "She was Ryan Copeland's best friend."

"Ryan Copeland?" Chuck mimicked, "I know that name from somewhere." He was wracking his brain for where he had heard that name, not being able to place it with any of his memories.

"Yeah, most people do. He was all over the news about four months back; it was really tragic." Chuck stared at Lucy whose gaze remained on the three children, her eyes glossy from developing tears. Even with this information, Chuck still couldn't remember why he knew the name, why this Ryan Copeland had been in the news. Fortunately, Lucy was there to fill him in. "He was the boy who was kidnapped and found dead three days later." She nodded towards a freshly planted tree, it was surrounded by teddies, photographs and cards; obviously a memorial for the young boy.

Chuck stared at the large, framed photograph of a brown haired boy who looked around the same age as Clara and the ginger girl Chuck assumed was Kelly, from what chuck could see he had hazel eyes, a toothy grin and he wore a red baseball cap. He briefly remembered reading a newspaper story about the missing boy and the murder, the town memorial, the broken hearted parents and tree planting that he hadn't attended. He suddenly felt extremely guilty for not supporting the town during such a dark time. Chuck's eyes changed their focus and were now also fixed on the three children who had huddled together in a tight circle, Dean explaining something while the two girls listened intently. After being reminded of the tragic ordeal, Chuck had become jittery, the shivers down his spine acting as a cautionary warning.

Lucy seemed to have sensed Chuck's uneasiness since she swiftly added, "The monsters that did it were found two months ago." Chuck released a breath he hadn't realised he was holding, _this babysitting gig is tense_. "I was relieved when they were caught; I hadn't let Clara out of my sight, we barely left the house when they were on the loose. Everyone's been more suspicious since then, probably why you were stopped and interrogated by slutty cop over there." Lucy glanced towards sherry who was now flirting with one of the mannies who had to be at least 5 years younger than her. Chuck nodded, not bothering to look, he was preoccupied with watching the three children walk towards the jungle gym, Dean leading the two girls who seemed perplexed with whatever he was saying; Chuck blinked and suddenly they had left his field of vision.

* * *

"Why do you need salt?" Kelly asked confused by the apparent none relevant substance Dean had just requested.

"Sal'," Dean tried to find a way to explain the concept to two 6 year olds. "Salt scares off ghosts, i's like their kwyptonite." Dean explained, hoping they would understand his reference.

"What's that?" Clara asked, interested in the new, complex word. Mouthing 'kryptonite' out inaudibly as Dean responded.

"I' doesn' ma'er. Basicawy, ghosts can't touch i'. So, if we're going to," Dean froze for a second time, trying to find an appropriate way of wording his sentence, careful not to scare or upset the two young girls, "Stop this ghost, we're going to nee' some sal'."

"The place over there has lots of salt," Clara said, pointing towards a greasy looking burger truck behind the jungle gym. "They have it for their fries."

"Wight, okay. We've go' sal'. Now, do either of you know if Wyan was cwemated or not?" Dean only received two confused, questioning looks in response to his question.

Clara edged closer to him, "What's that?" This was becoming a very frequent and irritating question directed at Dean; it was so much easier to hunt with adults who didn't need everything explaining to them like they were, well, six years old.

"Okay, was he buwied in a coffin?" Dean simplified his question, hoping to receive a more useful answer.

"No, he's in a jar in his house." Kelly informed him, sniffling at the reminiscing of her absent friend.

"Wight, tha' makes this a lot easier. It would be impossible to dig up a gwave like this." He received two uncertain looks from the two girls. "Um, is there anythin', a po-posse-session," dean struggled to say, unsure if the girls even knew what the word 'possession' meant. "Of his tha' he had with him a lo'? Somethin' with his DNA on it?" Dean was excited about the new case, this was exactly what he needed to take his mind of this damn curse; and it meant he could prove to everyone that he wasn't completely incapable of everything just because he had been de-aged. It was just another run of the mill, lingering spirit case, he had dealt with hundreds of them, but he was particularly enthusiastic about this specific case. In fact, he didn't recall ever being this excited about a case before, he was almost giddy with exhilaration. The pain in his head returned for a moment before quickly vanishing again, he discarded it, focussing more on the hunt he had embarked on.

"What's DNA?" Clara probed, blown away with all of these new, exciting terms.

"I' doesn' ma'er." Dean repeated for what felt like the hundredth time. "Jus' anythin' he had with him a lo'?" Dean asked, hoping for a response that didn't begin with "what's."

"There's his lucky cap. He wore that everywhere he went." Kelly said, wiping her reforming tears.

"Gweat, we're finally getting' somewhere. Where can we find this ha'?" Dean asked, eager to gank this ghost.

"It's other there, by his memorial." Clara said pointing towards a small, newly planted tree. Amongst the flowers, pictures and cards, Dean saw a battered red hat.

"This is too easy, come on then, we be'er ge' the sal' first. Bes' to have pwotection's always my mo'o." Dean said, turning towards the burger truck but before he could take a step forward, he was spun around by Clara.

"How do you know so much about ghosts?" she asked, squeezing his wrist tightly.

"Um, my bwother's a ghost hun'er?" he waited for her reaction to determine whether she believed him or not, when she nodded he continued. "So were my pawents and basically evewyone I know." It was partly true, just censored; he didn't want to terrify the two children by telling them everything about hunting.

"Awesome!" Clara beamed, her face turning more serious when she asked, "Is Chuck?" Kelly raised an eyebrow at the unknown name.

"A ghos' hun'er? Ha, god no, he's one of the only ones who doesn' hun' ghosts." Dean said, he couldn't help but laugh at the idea of Chuck hunting.

"I didn't think so; he doesn't look like one, he's too scruffy." Clara said with all the seriousness a six year old could muster causing Dean to laugh even more.

"C'mon le's go ge' some sal'." He said as they walked towards the truck.

* * *

AN: Here's the next chapter, I know your all probably waiting for the ghost but I wanted to give you some background information on it first. As always thanks for the reviews, favourites and follows. You seem to like the story so far and you have some interesting theories of wht's going to happen. I will upload the next one as soon as possible, but until then, enjoy!


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

The burger truck, wittily named "Best Burgers", was pretty busy so Dean figured it would be easy enough to grab the salt without anyone noticing the three children and start asking questions, questions would just result in an interrupted and failed hunt. Luckily 'Best Burgers' had large salt shakers instead of those tiny packets of salt, it would take at least a dozen of those to substitute for a single round of rock salt, never mind a salt circle. The owner/chef was a large man who was as greasy as the stoves, he looked grimy with day old stubble and long, unattended hair that was tied back into a short ponytail, his once white T-shirt was covered in mysterious stains from unknown condiments. Dean was surprised he received any business at all considering how he and the truck looked, that was until he saw the burgers. They looked like something from a cartoon and the smell was incredible.

His mouth began to water and if he wasn't in the middle of a case he would have bought one; except he had no money, Sam had taken what little money he did have claiming he didn't trust Dean with it, yet another way to patronise him. Dean felt his anger rise up, making him want to scream and kick something. He tried to shrug it off, finding the task more difficult than it usually was to let it go. Even if he did have some money, he was too short to even reach the counter and probably wouldn't be served; Dean gritted his teeth at the fact, although his size was beneficial in the task of going unnoticed while stealing the salt.

"Alwight, you two stay here a mini, I'm gonna ge' the sal'." Dean instructed the two girls, Kelly nodding and Clara shrugging while looking down at her shoes, disappointed by her less than vital role in the plan. Dean looked at the teddy he still held in his hands, he closed his eyes, noting how it might cause and inconvenience in his task. With great reluctance and an exasperated huff, he held his arms out, handing Zeppelin to Clara, "Loo' after Zeppelin pwees, I can' ge' the sal' while carryin' him. My hans are too small." Dean said grinding his teeth a little as the girl held his beloved childhood toy under her arm.

"Okay, I can do that, no problem." She replied enthusiastically, the ever present, wide smile taking residence on her face.

"Wight, I'll be back as soon as I ge' the sal'." Dean said, turning away from the two girls and embarking on what would usually be a mundane task. He began to weave between the costumers' legs, trying to get close enough to one of the tables to retrieve the salt. After side-stepping to avoid being crushed by a foot, Dean finally managed to reach an empty table, climbing onto one of the chairs he leaned in towards the middle. Learning from his mistake at breakfast this morning, he balanced himself more evenly and was able to snatch the salt shaker without falling over and humiliating himself again.

He leapt off the chair and surveyed how much salt was in the shaker. There was already one quarter gone and it was at most, only half of the amount they needed. He concluded he would need another salt shaker in order to have a sufficient amount. Dodging his way to a different table that had just been vacated by a couple, Dean climbed onto another chair and grabbed the second salt shaker that was near the edge of the table, making the task a lot easier the second time round. This salt shaker was full and he nodded satisfactorily as he picked up the first shaker he had placed next to him on the chair and began to walk back towards Clara and Kelly, loaded with enough salt to defeat the ghost.

"Hey, what are you doing?" a large boy who had stepped in front of him asked. This kid was huge, and not just in height. Dean guessed he was around 10 years old and he was twice the size of him, although it was hard to determine his age due to his size, he could have easily been older or younger. He had a buzz-cut hairstyle that made his large nose and dark eyes look even more intimidating than they already were. "I asked you a question, stupid!"

Dean flinched as the kid yelled at him and tapped him on the head, almost dropping the two salt shakers he had tried so hard to obtain. "Um, I was jus' ge'in' some salt for my fwies." Dean lied, using the first, and most simple, story that entered his head.

"My mom says you shouldn't have salt on fries, its unhealthy." the larger boy stated in a matter of fact tone as he looked down at Dean in a judging manner.

"Weally? You're giving _me_ healwth tips, sewiously?" Dean snickered, abruptly stopping when the kid grabbed his collar and yanked him a couple of inches off the ground.

"Listen midget, you don't insult me! That's not how it works. You're the one who's the baby and I'm older; that means I'm stronger, smarter and better than you!" the boy snarled as Dean squirmed in his grasp, kicking his short legs trying to break free from the bully.

"Back off, Scott! Stop being such a butthead and leave him alone!" Clara yelled at the boy as she approached, Kelly acting as her silent shadow. The boy dropped Dean, who stumbled backwards and falling backwards as he coughed due to the lack of oxygen he had received while being hoisted in the air. Clara stomped over, shoving past Scott and elbowing him in the gut; she held out her free hand and helped Dean to his feet. She handed him Zeppelin who he held in his arms since his hands were occupied with the two salt shakers. Clara turned back to Scott, her face scrunched up and red with anger, "pick on someone your own size you big meanie!" she growled, the boy cruelly laughed in response.

"What, like you?" he asked between laughter, amused with the absurd idea, although clara wasn't his own size, she was about a foot shorter than him but still taller than Dean.

"Why not?" Clara asked folding her arms; Kelly had joined Dean behind Clara and both were noiselessly watching the intense stand-off.

"Because you're a girl, stupid!" Scott spat, literally.

"I'm not stupid. You're the one who was held back a year and is failing in nearly every subject; I was top of the class." Clara said with a sneer. "And girls are just as good as boys; I could beat you up any day." Clara retorted, "Now leave us alone. We're very busy and we don't have time to talk to you!" she finally added before spinning around on her heels so she no longer faced the aggravating boy, the redness in her face becoming less vibrant.

"What are you so busy with?" Scott asked, determined to find out what was more important than talking to him.

Clara turned her head to look at him, smirking once more before saying, "None of your business, but it's very important and dangerous." Clara said beginning to walk away from the bully, ignoring his desperate tempts to discover what they were up to.

Kelly and Dean followed her, but not before Dean could turn to a lost looking Scott and stick his tongue out. "You bi', dumb meanie." Dean said, jogging away to catch up with Kelly and Clara.

After finding a secluded, out of sight spot, Dean placed Zeppelin on the floor and began to distribute the salt, creating a circle large enough for the three children to stand in.

"Clara, you go ge' the ha'. Make sure no one sees you and huwwy up." Dean instructed when he completed half of the circle.

"Okay!" Clara exclaimed barrelling off towards the memorial. Dean felt bad about stealing the hat from the memorial, he knew people would miss it, but if this ghost turned vengeful, those people could die. Less than a minute later Clara returned, cap in hand; a shadowy figure, around the same size, appearing behind her.

Kelly screamed when she saw the figure and grabbed Dean's arm for protection. Vaguely recognising him from the picture, Dean shouted, "Ge' inside the circle an' stay in there." All three of them rushed in and stood huddled together in the centre. Dean's heart began to race; his breathe becoming more hitched as the pain returned to his head. It was just a ghost, a ghost of child at that, but he was becoming increasingly scared. He felt Kelly and Clara' trembling holds on each of his arms as his own hands began to shake as he took the cap from Clara. He took out the lighter from his pocket, it was one of the only things he could snatch from Sam before he had confiscated all of Dean's other hunting equipment.

"Kelly, Clara, what are you doing? I thought you wanted to play with me." The figure asked in an eerie voice. "You were supposed to be my friends!" he screamed as he suddenly appeared in front of them. Kelly had begun to cry, hiding her face in Clara's shoulder since Dean's was too low down for her to bury her face in and remain standing at the same time. Clara continued to stand strong, refusing to display her fear, although he eyes were barely open. "Some friend's you are, I should…" he tried to lunge forward, prevented access by the salt; Dean breathed deeply, summoning all the confidence he possibly could.

"St-stop where you are Casper." Dean warned, stuttering slightly, only to have the boy Chuckle in response to his threat.

"What are you going to do?" the boy asked in a sinister voice as he circled the three kids inside the salt perimeters.

"I'm sowwy for wha' happen' to you and I know your twapped here. I'm goin' to help you move on." Dean said as calmly as he could, his eyes tracking the ghost's movements.

Ryan's eyes grew narrower, his brow furrowing as he stared at Dean. "You don't know what it's like to die, you can't help me." The boy's voice echoed through the trees, his fists clenched tightly as he stopped in front of Dean to peer down at him. Dean thought about the boy was wrong and considered the previous times he had died, it was only a couple of weeks ago when he and Sam were shot and went to heaven.

"Please, Ryan. He can help, his family are ghost hunters." Clara pleaded, marginally shaken by what her friend had become.

"Exactly, he just wants to kill me, _again_." Ryan said. "Kelly, you can't let him do this. We'll never get to talk again. I've missed you so much." Kelly's face was still hidden, scared to even look at her once best friend.

"I'm sorry." She whispered as Clara hugged her reassuringly.

"Goodbye Ryan." Clara said while Dean raised the lighter to the cap, it caught alight and as it did Ryan began to scream in agony. He then vanished, sending a blast of wind throughout the park. Kelly raised her head to see if it had worked. Clara released a relieved sigh and took a step away from Kelly. Dean remained silent, his entire body shuddering with fear and adrenalin; it was like being on his first ever hunt again.

A couple of intrigued parents and children closed in on the scene to find a source of the screaming; Dean kicked away the salt, extinguished the fire and pocketed his lighter before anyone could perceive the strange scene. Kelly spotted her parents and ran over to them, jumping into her father's arms. Her father picked him up, a worried expression on his and Kelly's mother's face, but they soon smiled when they saw how happy and talkative Kelly was compared to her usual quiet and reserved self; Kelly turned and waved to Dean and Clara, mouthing "thank you" as they both waved back.

"That was awesome." Clara finally said after a couple minutes of silence, she then gripped Dean's available hand and yanked it. "Come on, let's go." They began to walk back to the bench where Lucy and Chuck were, but Scott stepped in front of them again, blocking their route. This time he had back-up in the form of 4 other boys all around Scott's age. "Still want to see if you can beat me up?" he asked Clara, giving her a hard shove on her shoulder.

"Just go away Scott." She said in a calm tone, trying to get her and Dean past the large boy, only to be stopped by the other four. One scrawny boy with black curly hair and glasses snatched Zeppelin out of Dean's hand.

"Look at this kid's teddy." He mocked in a high pitched voice, throwing the teddy to Scott.

"Give him back!" Dean demanded, breaking free from Clara's grasp and storming up to scot.

"What? Does the baby want his teddy back?" Scott asked, mocking Dean's own voice, adding a lisp and removing the 't's from his words.

"You're the one being a baby, Scott. Picking on kids half your age." Clara said, trying to bat away one of the boys who grabbed her arm tightly.

"At least he's not hanging around with them." A blonde girl sneered; she looked like your typical 'mean girl'. She was dressed similarly to Sherry and even had an identical haircut. "Will no one else be your friend, Clara?" she asked in a vicious tone. "I'm not surprised."

"Go away Georgia!" Clara snapped at her.

Dean was still stood in front of Scott, jumping as he tried to reach Zeppelin who was held above Scott's head, teasing the shorter boy, moving the teddy up and down as Dean tried to reach it. Dean was becoming frustrated, he had just ganked a ghost, the pain in his head was worse than ever and now this kid was teasing him.

"Look you dick, give me back my teddy and leave me and Clara alone." Dean commanded placing his hands on his hips.

"You said a naughty word!" Georgia said, all the other boys gasping with surprise and making that "aww" sound kids do when someone breaks the rules.

"I don't care. Johnny Lawrence here stole my stuff!" Dean said, although the impending guilt crept up his spine as he felt the spectators eyes focus on him. "He deserved it!" Dean spat at the taller boy.

"Don't talk to my brother that way!" Georgia said with great authority, "You're little and are supposed to show us respect because we're older." She folded her arms and looked down at Dean. She was probably one of the eldest at the park being around 11 or 12.

"I don't know who you think you are Hargensen, but I don't have to show you shit." Dean said, gritting his teeth as he clenched his fists, his nails digging into his palm.

"Hey." Scott scolded, shoving Dean's shoulder more forcefully than he had done with Clara- even though Dean was a lot smaller- making Dean to fall backwards, his weight landing on his wrist, causing it to bend in an unnatural direction. He held it close to his chest, trying to sooth the pain while attempting not to cry. Clara pushed away the boy who held her arm and ran to check on Dean.

"Why are you always so mean?" Clara yelled at Scott.

"What's going on here?" Sherry had appeared, almost as silently as the ghost had, Georgia ran to her side like an obedient puppy ready to explain what had happened.

"We were just playing and he," she said pointing at Dean, the same level of loathing Sherry had in her eyes when looking at him, "started calling people mean names, swearing," she added, causing Sherry to frown, "and she started yelling." She moved her finger to point at Clara.

"That's not true! Scott stole Dean's teddy and pushed him over. I think he's really hurt." Clara said trying to examine Dean's wrist the best a six year old could, hoping the adult would help her.

"No, mom, we were just looking at his teddy and he slipped over." Scott protested looking to the other boys to support his argument, the other boys and Georgia all nodded whereas Clara and Dean shook their heads.

"I warned you about swearing." She directed at Dean, ignoring what Clara had said and siding with her children.

"What's going on?" Chuck asked, slightly out of breath from running towards them, Lucy was close behind. He threw himself to his knees when he saw Dean sitting on the floor, on the brink of tears. "Dean, are you ok?" he inquired, accepting the hand Clara was holding.

"I'm fine." Dean said in a quiet voice, wincing in pain as Chuck prodded at his swelling wrist, wiping his eyes to avert himself from crying.

"You see, he's fine." Sherry confirmed as Lucy and Chuck stared at her. Chuck had been writing about the Winchesters for a long time now, and he knew "I'm fine" meant the complete opposite.

"Come on, I have a first aid kit in my car." Lucy said as Clara took her hand, rubbing her arm where one of the boys grabbed her too tightly. Dean scrambled to his feet, grabbing Chuck's hand while holding the other close to his body. Chuck glared down at Scott, ripping the teddy from his hands and started following Lucy.

"He should be okay; it looks like a sprained wrist so I put a bandage on it and placed it in a sling to support it. If it starts to hurt again later, give him some pain killers and if the swelling doesn't go down in a couple of days or the pain gets unbearable, take him to the hospital for further investigation. But he should be fine, just rest it, okay?" Lucy explained while finishing bandaging Dean's wrist, stroking his face with her hand.

"He's been through worse." Chuck said. "Thanks, a lot. You know a lot about this kind of stuff." Chuck said as Dean hopped off the car seat and walked to stand by his feet.

"Yeah, mommy's going to be a nurse." Clara said with great pride.

"Lucky for us then." Dean said, taking Zeppelin back from Chuck.

"Well, we better get going. Come on Clara." Lucy encouraged tugging at her daughter's hand to get her into the car.

"No," Clara nagged, "I don't want to go home, I want to carry on playing with Dean." she begged, escaping her mom's grip and running to stand at Dean's side.

"We have to go to store anyway. So…" Chuck said, remembering the lack of food in his house and how Dean had only eaten a handful of chips.

"That's where we're going." Clara screeched in excitement. "Mom, can they come with us?" Clara pleaded.

"Um, it's up to Chuck sweetie, but if he wants to, then sure." Lucy bargained.

"Well," Chuck wasn't sure how to answer, but made up his mind when Dean looked up at him with pleading eyes.

"Pwees, Chuck." He asked.

"Okay, come on then." Chuck said as they all climbed into Lucy's car.

Then, as they set off to the store, Clara said the most terrifying words a guardian could hear. "There's this really cool toy store we can go to."

* * *

AN: Next chapter's here, it's another long one, and I hope you all enjoy it. Thank you for the reviews, favs and follows as always and hopefully you carry on enjoying the story. I forgot to mention in the last one, did anyone notice the Louden Swain lyric I slipped in? The "life's profound. Be who you want to be." Yeah, I kind of stole that. I hope you like this chapter, a bit more action and some bullying. (come on you knew Sherry's kids were going to be horrible.) Oh if you didn't get the references, Johnny Lawrence is the bully in The Karate Kid and Chris Hargensen is the bully in Carrie, I thought those two would be films Dean had seen. I will post the next chapter asap, but until then, enjoy!


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

The toy store, 'Toymania', was overwhelming for both Chuck and Dean; it was less of a store and more a small country, each aisle being a different continent. Clara dragged Dean over to look at the large, intricate Christmas display where 15 other children stood, entranced by the model train that orbited the miniature, snow covered village, hidden speakers played an instrumental version of 'Santa Claus is coming to town' while Santa's sleigh was suspended inches above, seemingly held there by magic. Dean and Clara stood perfectly still, barely blinking so they didn't miss a single minute of the looped sequence; Dean even held Zeppelin up the second time so his teddy could see the spellbinding display. Chuck and Lucy stood with the other parents whose children had been drawn in by the twinkling lights and soothing music.

"Lucy? You're here again?" A man's voice came from behind them, catching Chuck by surprise. He turned to see a curly, blonde haired man in the same elf outfit that the rest of the staff were forced to wear. He had a strong build, around 6 foot, and chiselled features that matched the rest of his demeanour, his eyes were a dark shade of blue, his pointy green and red hat made his ears stick out causing him to look a little goofy, although that could've also been the green tights he wore.

"Oh, hiya Joey." Lucy greeted the man warmly with a hug and a kiss on either cheek. "Clara wanted to come back, apparently seeing Santa five times in one winter isn't enough."

"I swear that girls addicted."

"It's probably all the crack you put in the candy canes." She joked, her voice hushed so she wasn't overheard by disapproving adults.

"I only give the special candy canes to you; and besides, I'm certain you're whole family's DNA is moulded from crack." He replied, his voice equally quiet. If his boss heard him talking like this to a costumer he'd be fired within a heartbeat.

"Nick causing you more trouble then?" She asked raising an eyebrow since she already knew the answer.

"He's always causing me trouble, it just gets ten times worse at Christmas." He sighed. "I want him tested for OCD, or anxiety; actually, he should be tested for everything." He harangued causing Lucy to laugh. "Who's this then?" He asked like a gossiping mother, eyeing Chuck before looking accusingly at Lucy.

"Joey, this is Chuck, he's a babysitter. Chuck, this is Joey, he's an elf," Lucy said making Joey smile insincerely, "And my brother in-law." Joey shook Chuck's hand as Lucy introduced them.

"He's cute; we should hire him to watch Zach one night." Joey said, once again eyeing Chuck more closely causing Chuck to blush. "God knows me Nick need a break, honestly, I love that kid he is driving us up the walls." He rubbed his forehead with one hand, his brain was yelling at him to get some sleep.

"I don't, um, this is just…" Chuck stumbled over his words in embarrassment, "I'm just doing it as a favour for a friend; I'm not a real babysitter." He said after composing himself.

"Shame, we had to fire Kerry." He directed at Lucy, or at least Chuck hoped it was because he had no idea who this Kerry was.

"Why? I thought you liked her." Lucy said surprised.

"We did, but last time she babysat we came home to find her smoking pot with that rock star boyfriend of hers." Joey explained with a roll of his eyes.

"I'm surprised you didn't join them." Lucy teased.

"Well, after we confiscated I suggested it to Nick, but you know that big brother of yours is like." The three adult's conversation was interrupted by Clara.

"Uncle Joey!" Clara squealed, jumping into the man's arms. He lifted her up and rested her on his hip while she hugged his neck.

"Hiya sunshine!" Joey greeted her almost as excitedly, although chuck doubted his was genuine excitement, giving her cheek a playful nudge.

Dean slowly edged over to Chuck, fiddling with his bandage and looking lost now that his friend had left him. His smile soon returned when Joey placed Clara back on the floor and the two were reunited, Clara grabbing Dean's hand again.

"Who's your new friend Clara?" Joey asked when he noticed Dean.

"I'm Dean." He piped up.

"And he's my new _best _friend!" Clara boasted, correcting her uncle on his mistake. Chuck smiled, they had only met a couple of hours ago and she had already declared Dean as her best friend.

"And have you been playing nurse again?" He asked her when he noticed Dean's bandaged arm.

"No-o." Clara drawled out. _There it is again_, Chuck noted the extended syllables. "It was a bully, we fought them off today after we went ghost hunting." She said matter-of-factly. "We're ghost hunters now." Chuck tried to join in with Lucy and Joey's amused laughter but just ended up laughing nervously after seeing Dean's weak smile that was draped in guilt, knowing that it was most likely the truth. _Damn it, if Sam finds out he'll kill me. _He cursed himself for not paying more attention to the kid. _I have to stop being distracted by hot moms, _he resolved in his head.

"Wow, we'll have to hire you out a fire station and form a team." Joey joked.

"You can be in it!" Clara suggested.

"Only if you pwomise not'o cwoss the stweams, though." Dean replied.

"Hey, you got that right. I like this kid." Joey ruffled Dean's hair; he hadn't expected the kids to understand his reference to the classic 80's movie. Dean shied away, blushing from the praise. They'd only met the guy and already he had made both Chuck and Dean turn bright red. "So, I hear you want to see Santa again."

"Yeah!" Clara exclaimed running towards the queue of children, dragging Dean behind her, before Joey could say "Let's go." Lucy and Chuck were left behind with confused looks and Zeppelin who Dean had entrusted Chuck with.

The queue led to a man dressed who was dressed as Santa and sat on red throne on top a platform that was covered in cotton wool snow, which looked surprisingly realistic, boxes wrapped in brightly coloured wrapping paper scattered around the chair and a tall, exquisitely decorated tree behind him.

Lucy was laughing at the two kids in the queue. "She does this every year, I think she suspects it's not the real Santa because she just seems to love interrogating him, the poor guy. I guess it's just revenge for lying about his identity." Chuck laughed shaking his head; _wow, this little girl was pretty weird._

"So Joey seems nice." He said, lost for a new topic of conversation.

"Yeah, sorry about him by the way. He comes off a little, um, strong when you first meet him." Chuck nodded in agreement, still blushing slightly from Joey's comments. "He's really great though, and kind of the opposite of my brother, but you know, yin and yang and all that." They watched as Joey, Clara and Dean moved forward in the queue, Clara talking animatedly like always. They walked closer to watch as Dean and Clara scrambled up the stairs of the platform to sit on Santa's lap, one child on each leg. The man playing Santa rolled his eyes when he saw Clara, putting on a fake smile that began to vacillate when she started talking. Dean sat silently as Clara asked complex and absurd question about all things Christmas related that even St. Nick himself would probably struggle answering, let alone an out of work man looking to make a quick buck.

"So what do you want for Christmas this year, young man?" He asked Dean in a typical boisterous Santa voice with a short Chuckle at the end to top off the performance.

"His name's Dean." Clara supplied, the man nodded but didn't say anything, unable to withstand any more of the insufferable questions the girl asked.

"Um, I dunno." Dean said, looking towards Chuck as if hoping for back-up.

"Okay, I'm sure there's something, anything?" The man asked, trying to get an answer out of the reserved boy so he could move on to the next child.

"Not weally." But the man continued to look at him expectantly. "Um, world peace, maybe?" Dean suggested with a shrug. Chuck watched, heartbroken that Dean no longer expected anything for Christmas, but that was how he had grown up; ever since he was four he didn't receive presents on Christmas morning. Although, the truth was that Dean did want something, he wanted to stop the apocalypse but he knew he wouldn't find that under a tree with a bow on it and thought it would be a weird request from a four year old boy so he decided to stay quiet.

"Well, as long as you've been a good boy this year, I'm sure you'll get everything you want." Santa said with the same wavering smile, "You have been a good boy, I'm sure." Dean shrugged again, thinking about the past year, he wouldn't class it as his best behaviour. "Now, let's get a picture." He said keen to wrap things up with the two awkward children. As they all smiled and looked towards the camera, an attractive female elf pressed the button on the camera producing a flash of light.

Another female elf handed the two children a small, red velvet pouch that contained some Christmas themed sweets they gave out to all the children. Dean put his stash in his pocket- that was now pretty full- and Clara did the same but pulled out a chocolate coin out first, snapping it down the middle and giving half of it to Dean.

"Would you like two copies or one?" A spotty and bored looking teenager dressed in the same elf apparel as the other employees asked in a flat, uninterested tone.

"Two please." Lucy said handing over some money and accepting the copies of the photograph that had been placed in a red cardboard frame that opened out like a book; on the front in gold calligraphy said 'Santa's workshop 2009'.

"There you go." She handed one of the copies to Chuck.

"Oh, thanks." He said, reaching in his pocket to find his money so he could pay her back.

"No, don't worry about it. Think of it as Dean's Christmas present from us." Lucy said, refusing to take Chuck's money.

"Mom, can I get a toy?" Clara asked, tugging on Lucy's coat sleeve.

"Fine, but you can only get one." Lucy answered.

"Come on Dean." Clara tugged on Dean unwounded arm, pulling him in the direction of the animal themed aisle.

"And don't pressure Dean into buying something you think he'll enjoy like you did last time, let him pick what he wants." Lucy warned her daughter before she was out of ear shot. Clara stopped and turned around to face her mother.

"Kyle loved that Barbie I picked out for him." Clara pointed out, grinning triumphantly as she stood at the top of the aisle.

"Yes, that may be, but his parents didn't." Lucy shouted after her as Clara and Dean ran down the aisle, stopping at different sections to survey some toys. Lucy had a flashback of Jake's parents ranting about how their son wouldn't put down the Barbie doll he had admirably named after Clara, furious that her daughter had gotten him obsessed with a girl's toy and blamed Lucy for Jake's 'little crush' as they had called it.

"I swear, that daughter of yours has got to be my idol." Joey joked laughing as Clara shoved a pink unicorn hat on Dean's head. If it were anyone else, Dean probably would have punched them in the face for that, but with Clara he just laughed. "She's most likely mentally insane, but she's still my idol."

"Yeah, says the father of the boy who wants to be the moon when he's older. Now haven't you got work to do?" Lucy said with a prod to Joey's shoulder.

"Hey, I still believe with hard work Zach can accomplish that dream. But unfortunately, you're correct; I have to get back to work. Well, it was nice to meet you Chuck." He said, shaking Chuck's hand.

"Yeah, you too Joey."

"I'll see you later Lucy." He waved as he walked backwards to the checkout, spinning into a hop-jog.

"Yeah you will, Friday to be exact. Say hi to Nick and Zach for me." She shouted after him, exchanging what must be their signature wave.

"So, is your whole family insane?" Chuck asked half-jokingly.

"Well, not my whole family. It's only really me and my brother now. Our parents don't approve of our lifestyles;" She paused for a moment unsure whether to continue or not. "A pregnant teenage daughter and a gay son aren't exactly the ideal catholic children." She said with a tragic half-laugh. "Now, didn't you need something from the grocery store?" Lucy searched for a distraction so they could move past the latest topic.

"Yeah, but I'll wait." Chuck said, looking out of the large window that covered the front wall of 'Toymania' and towards the small grocery store across the street.

"No, you go. I'll watch Dean for you. Don't worry about it." She assured him.

"Really? Thanks." Chuck handed her $20, "That's for Dean if he wants anything." He began to walk towards the door, Zeppelin still with him, turning briefly halfway there to say, "I'll be back in a minute." He almost broke out into a run so he wouldn't be away from Dean for too long.

Dean stood by Clara as she rooted through what seemed like the thousandth aisle for the toy she was looking for; he had never really gone to many toy stores as a kid, only ever receiving second hand toys, if he ever did receive any. Zeppelin was one of the only toys he remembered that wasn't second hand, along with a toy robot and plane he'd gotten before his mom had died. He looked out the front window at to view the snowy street, noticing a blue car he thought he recognised from the park; shrugging it off as Clara dragged him to a different section of the store. Finally she found it, a blue and yellow potato gun with a red laser on the top.

"Isn't it cool?" She queried, smiling when Dean nodded in agreement. "What are you getting then?" Clara asked him, hugging the large box in order to carry it.

"Um," Dean looked round, surveying the varied selection of toys before his eyes fell on a crossbow that shot rubber arrows. "Awesome." He grinned. He walked over and tried to pick it up, the box only being a couple inches shorter than him and having one arm in a sling caused some difficulties at first, but he eventually settled on dragging it with one arm. "I'll get this." He told Clara.

"That's cool too." Clara approved. "Let's go, I'll tell my mom we're getting these and then we can go play with them." They struggled to transport there chosen objects back to Lucy and Chuck, using a range of methods including pushing, pulling and kicking, manoeuvring through the maze of aisles and displays.

Each turn they took, Dean had the growing suspicion that they were being followed. He looked at the reflection of a TV screen to see a man he definitely recognised from the park who had sat alone on a bench merely observing the playground. He walked faster, dragging along the box, desperate to get back to Chuck. When he spotted Lucy though, she was on her own. His breathing quickened, his heart racing faster as fear spread through his body.

"Are you two ready to pay?" She asked picking up the two boxes they had selected and walking to the short checkout queue.

"Where's Chuck?" Dean inquired in a single breath, staying close to her leg while looking for the prophet. The man who had been following them was lingering about fifteen feet away, reading the description of a toy though eyes looked up every once in a while to study Dean.

"Dean, don't worry. He's just across the street; he had to pick up a few things from the store. He'll be back in a minute." She reassured him, trying to calm down the nervous boy as she fished out her money and paid.

Dean had started to panic, tapping his foot anxiously he decided he would risk it knowing that whatever this thing was, it could easily overpower Lucy and by being here he was putting her life, and Clara's, in danger. He ran towards the exit while the man had been looking down, he pushed the door open with one hand and threw himself into a small gap between the wall and a large dumpster by the side of the toy store. He had heard the footsteps follow him and knew he wouldn't make it across the street in time, not with his tiny four year old body and his wrist in a sling. He curled himself up into a small ball, hoping he would not be seen. He wasn't able to see the man but Dean could hear his heavy footprints crunching on the snow.

"Oh Dean, where did you go?" He asked in an unnerving sing-song voice, if Dean could see him he would have noticed the man's eyes flicker black momentarily before returning to normal. Dean held his breath, holding back sobs as silent tears trickled down his cheeks. _Why the hell am I crying?_ He thought to himself, only crying more as he became frustrated with himself.

"You got away from me last time before we could have a proper chat, well rest assured that won't happen again. I don't know how you pulled that little trick of yours, but I'd be interested to find out." There was a creepy calmness to his voice and it was then that Dean realised it was the demon that had possessed sheriff Mills from the previous day which made him cry more, still silently though, at the memory of what had happened. _I'm never going shopping again, ever._

He tucked his head between his knees, muffling his hurried breathing more and becoming as small as possible. He tried his best to remain still, trying desperately not to shiver in the freezing snow that nearly enveloped his entire body; the only positive thing was that the deep snow hid him completely from the demon.

"Come out, come out wherever you are. Come on Deano, I just want to talk." Dean curled up even further, if that was possible. Being compressed in the small space was hurting his wrist; he tried to reposition himself but stopped when he thought he heard himself make a noise. "If you don't come out now, I will kill your little friends in there. Shame, that little girl seems nice." Dean almost squeaked in dread. He couldn't get the memory of his previous encounter with the demon out of his head, the feeling of helplessness and distress. _I shouldn't be hiding, I never hide._

"You have until the count of three. One, two…" There was a loud crash from somewhere at the back of the toy store, metal crashing and soft footprint; Dean though it was most likely a roaming cat or an employee, whatever it was, he thanked them for being there.

"There you are, you little runt." The demon spat running around to find the source of the noise that he thought was Dean.

Dean used this as an opportunity to escape and sprinted across the street to the store where Chuck was, barrelling through the doors and into the prophet's arms. Chuck had just finished paying and almost dropped the plastic bag when he caught the tiny Winchester. He suddenly felt extremely guilty and worried when he looked down at the tear stained face, holding the shuddering body closer to him.

"What's wrong?" Chuck asked.

"D-demon." Dean stuttered in barely a whisper, Chuck only heard him because he was so close to his ear, before he broke out into a fit of uncontrollable tears.

"It's okay, it's okay." He tried to comfort him, stroking Dean's damp hair as Dean buried his face into the crook of Chuck's neck. Chuck handed him Zeppelin who he clung to for security.

Concerned costumers started to gather around them, "Is he okay?" One elderly woman asked while the teenaged check out girl who served him asked, "Should I get the manager?"

"No, it's fine. He's just upset." Chuck said walking out the door after reassuring the costumers nothing sinister was going on, he desperately wanted to avoid any more unwanted attention. He walked quickly wanting to get Dean back to the safety of his house in order to protect him from the demon that had scared the supposedly fearless hunter so much. He almost walked straight into a flustered Lucy who had Clara's hand gripped tightly in hers.

"Oh thank god." She sighed in relief. "I was scared half to death; I mean, he just started running and this guy started following him. Joey said one of the security guards found the man who chased him passed out behind the store. I thought he'd grabbed him or something." She finally paused to take a much needed breath. Chuck felt sorry for the man who had been possessed, knowing what he will soon be accused of; he also felt troubled by the fact that the demon who was after dean was still out there, somewhere. "I'm so, so sorry. I should've kept a closer eye on him."

"No, it's fine, he's fine. I shouldn't have left the store." Chuck said, mentally scolding himself for being so stupid and swearing to keep Dean in sight until he was returned to normal, or at least until he was Sam's responsibility again. "I should get him home." Chuck said after a moment of silence.

"Yeah, that's probably best." Lucy nodded, still not forgiving herself for what happened.

"Bye Dean." Clara waved, frowning a little. Dean returned the gesture weakly but said nothing, his breathing still rapid as his body continued to shake.

"You can come by to see Dean tomorrow," Chuck told her, receiving a wide smile; he had given Lucy his address earlier in the day since she had offered to drive him and Dean home. From the store, Chuck's house was only a couple of blocks away so Chuck thought it was best to walk back, only Dean's quiet sobs breaking the tense silence. They arrived back to his house after 15 minutes and Chuck opened the door with one hand, Dean still held in his other arm and the grocery back in his hand. When he nudged the door open with his shoulder he was greeted with an unexpected face.

"Becky?" He asked.

"Yes, why are you so surprised? We had plans tonight." She was stood in front of the door and Chuck wondered just how long she'd been there.

"Oh crap, I forgot." He sighed.

"Chuck, why are you carrying a kid?" Becky asked, noticing the child in Chuck's arms who still hadn't raised his head from Chuck's shoulder. His breathing was only now slowing down but his eyes were still bright from stubborn tears that refused to cease.

"Um," He stalled as he prised Dean's hand away from his neck and placed him on the sofa, he turned on the TV and selected a channel playing Looney Tunes. Dean sat silently, staring at the screen with unfocussed eyes, Zeppelin still held tightly in his arms. Chuck stared at him for a moment, noting how dreadful he looked. He had only been looking after him for one day and already he was in a sling, was drenched from melted snow and would probably catch a cold, had hunted a ghost and was stalked by a demon. This was the definition of world's worst babysitter.

"Chuck?" Becky pressed.

"Can I talk to you in the kitchen for a moment?" He asked, mentally planning how he could explain this.

* * *

AN: These chapters just seem to be getting longer and longer. I hope you like this one, there's a bit of humour mixed in with some action/drama. As always thank you for all of the reviews, favourites and follows. They mean a lot to me and I'm so glad your enjoying the story, and if your not you've read up to chapter 12 now, so... I really didn't expect it to be this long and there's still quite a bit to go, I hope you stick with it though, it gets good. Plenty of twists and turns and one of my favourite supernatural characters is in the next couple of chapters. (I wonder if you can guess who.) Anyway, I hope you like the chapter and until next time, enjoy!


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

"So you're telling me that's Dean? As in, the actual Dean Winchester?" Chuck nodded, trying to calm Becky down; he couldn't tell whether she was excited or worried by this, either way Chuck knew that Dean would not react well to it. "And he's four years old now?"

"Yeah, at the moment. There was a witch and a curse; Sam's busy looking for a way to change him back." Chuck explained, glancing through to the living room to see Dean who had not moved an inch since Chuck had placed on the sofa.

"Why's he here though? And what happened to him? He looks terrible." Becky joined Chuck to stare at the weary looking Dean.

"Sam thought he would be safest here." Chuck almost laughed at how wrong Sam had been. "Dean couldn't exactly go with him to hunt the witch; Sam thinks she has a personal vendetta against Dean." Becky nodded, thinking of possible suspects from the list of witch's the Winchesters had faced in the past, she checked off all the names she had memorised after reading Chuck's work.

"So, is that why he's like…" She waved her hand gesturing towards Dean. "Did the witch do it to him?"

"No, that was from today." Chuck sighed, feeling an intense sense of failure. "There was a demon, I don't know what happened exactly all I know is it chased Dean. After that he went silent; I haven't been able to get more than one word out of him." Chuck said while unpacking the grocery bag held in his hand, leaving out a children microwavable meal of lasagne he'd picked up for Dean.

"Does he still remember everything?"

Chuck nodded, "I think so."

"So it's just him in a child's body?"

Chuck froze for a minute considering the question, that's what he had assumed, but seeing him now, the extreme look of distress and pain he had seen in the child's eyes earlier, it was obvious Dean wasn't his adult self. "I don't know; yeah, sometimes he is but then sometimes," He glanced at Dean again, remembering the state he'd been in less than half an hour ago, "Well, sometimes he's not. I don't really know what's going on." He admitted, placing the lasagne in the microwave after stabbing some holes in the layer of plastic on top and reading the cooking instructions. While the meal heated up he walked into the living room to check on Dean, Becky lingered at the door, choosing to observe rather in the debriefing.

"Hey, are you ok now?" Dean nodded, still vacantly staring at the screen. "Do you want to talk about what happened?" Dean looked down for a minute, contemplating the suggestion before looking up, his large green eyes finally meeting Chuck's.

"I though' I was bein' followed so I wan." He couldn't bring himself to tell the rest of the story, partly because he could still feel the fear consume him when he thought about it, but mainly because he was embarrassed that he had gotten so scared. "I' was the same demon fwom yes'erday." He announced in a near whisper.

"How did it find you?" Chuck asked, eyes darting around the room as if the demon would be there.

Dean shrugged, hoping to leave the topic at that, not wanting to think about the threats the demon had made during each meeting. Chuck sensed his eagerness so he obliged to Dean's wishes, changing the topic to one he knew Dean would be more comfortable with and possibly enthusiastic about. "Do you want something to eat?"

Dean nodded keenly, suddenly overwhelmed with hunger. The last time he had eaten was that morning, it was now seven pm and he was surprised he had survived the day purely on a handful of potato chips; he figured it was due to all the distractions he had encountered during his eventful day. Dean followed Chuck through to the kitchen, leaving Zeppelin on the sofa to continue watching the television, and sat in the chair he had silently declared as his favourite. The entire time he was eating- once again with plastic cutlery after Chuck cut the meal up into smaller chunks since Dean was unable to with only one hand- he was aware of Becky staring at him.

Through a mouthful of pasta he said, "Stop stawing will ya, i's cweepy." Becky eyes immediately fell to the floor, now trying to look at anything that wasn't Dean.

When Dean had finished the lasagne and a slice of pie Chuck gave him in an attempt to cheer him up, he returned to the sofa, pulling Zeppelin back onto Dean's preferred position that was his lap and began to watch cartoons again; only looking up half an hour later when his phone began to ring. It was on the table where Chuck and Becky were still sat around, discreetly discussing what to do with the four year old. The vibrating object scared Chuck at first since he had been on edge ever since they had returned to the house. He looked down at the screen to see the name 'Sam', underneath it read '17 missed calls'.

"Hello," He said answering the ringing phone, bringing the vibrating to an end.

"Chuck? Where the hell have you been? I've called like 15 times. Is everything okay?" He heard Sam's frantic voice on the other end of the phone.

"Yeah, sorry about that. Everything's fine here, we'd been out at the park. Dean must've left his phone here." Chuck explained, trying to keep his voice as calm as possible, not wanting to worry Sam to any further extent. Chuck thought it was wise not to mention the demon, bullies or ghost until Sam got here and it was absolutely necessary; it was best for him to remain focussed on the case, that way he could find a way to reverse this spell faster. That's what was most important right now.

As if to remind him of that, Dean had wandered over so he was able to hear the phone conversation better, standing on his tiptoes so he could rest his chin on the table, hand next to it in order to balance. "Is everything okay on your end?" Chuck asked hoping the answer was a positive one.

"Yeah, I just wanted to check how everything was going." Chuck could barely hear what Sam was saying over Dean's relentless questions.

"Has he found the witch yet? Can they turn me back? Chuck, what's going on? Chuck, Chuck, Chuck,"

"Dean, shh. I can't hear anything if you keep talking over him." He said, straining to hear what Sam was saying.

"Is Dean there?" Sam asked, not waiting for Chuck to reply since he'd already deduced it due to Chuck's appeals. "I need to talk to him. Can you put me on loudspeaker?" Sam requested.

"Yeah, hang on a second." Chuck pulled the phone away from his ear, searching for the speaker button on the alien phone, Dean rolled his eyes and held out his arm, offering to do it for him, chuck ignored him however and continued to struggle looking for the correct action. "Okay, I think you're on loudspeaker now." Chuck said after pressing a button with a volume symbol on it and placing the phone flat in the centre of the table.

"Okay," Sam said, testing if they could hear him.

"Hiya Sammy," Dean said excitedly, "Have you foun' the witch ye'?"

"Yeah, we found her." Sam replied in a less than enthusiastic tone, Chuck could tell something was wrong.

"So you can ge' her to turn me back then?" Dean was almost bouncing in excitement, biting his tongue as his head bumped against the table.

"Not exactly," Sam replied flatly.

"Wha' you mean not exac'ly?" Dean asked, suddenly deflated, sinking in on himself as he started to become gradually more panicked.

"She's dead."

"What/wha'?" All three people gathered around the phone asked in unison.

"Is that Becky?" Sam asked after distinguishing the third voice.

"Pwiowities Sam, wha' happened to the witch? Di' you kill her?" Dean asked hurriedly, leaning in closer to the phone.

"Right, the witch. No, we didn't kill her; she was already dead when we got to the warehouse." Sam told them.

"How did she die then?" Becky asked before Dean could.

"Um, well, it's kind of weird." Sam said hesitantly.

"Weirder than me bein' four years ol'?" Dean asked sceptically, his bitterness at the situation becoming clearer by the second.

"Good point. But still, it was weird. Her entire body had been drained of all blood and it looks like her organs are missing. She's basically a skeleton with flesh; even her hair and fingernails are gone." Sam described, wincing at the memory of what the body looked like.

Chuck, Becky and Dean all stared at the phone questioningly, sharing the same puzzled look. "Ew, gwoss." Dean said.

"Do you think it was a vampire?" Becky suggested, utilizing her knowledge she had learned from the books.

"Can't be, no bite marks. Actually, there's no sign of any injury on the skin, her blood and organs look like they just disappeared." Sam shot down Becky's theory.

"Well, have you at leas' go' the weversal spell?" Dean asked, hoping there was at least one positive point to all of this.

"That's the other weird thing, I'm not even sure she was a witch." Sam said, producing more questioning looks and even a gasp from Becky.

"Wha' the hell is she then?" The other three members in the conversation all winced, even though Dean was actually a fully grown adult, it was still weird to hear him swear in this form.

"I don't know but there's no sign of witchcraft; no hex bags or grimoires, nothing supernatural apart from the body itself. The only other thing here is what looks like a bunch of old German fairy tale books." Sam explained, as he looked at the stack of books he had bought back to Bobby's and flipped through. "I don't know what's going on, but it's definitely not witchcraft and it's nothing we've ever seen before."

"Gweat," Dean mumbled sarcastically, like swearing, sarcasm sounded unnatural coming from a child's mouth. "What do we do now then?"

"Me and Bobby are going to look into it, Bobby's already called some contact's to ask around. I'm going to stay here tonight, do some research, and then head back in the morning. I should get there sometime in the afternoon. Hopefully we've found something by then." Dean continued to frown despite his brother's plans; it must have been audible since Sam added. "Don't worry, we'll figure it out. I'll phone tomorrow to check in, bye." Dean, Chuck and Becky continued to listen to the dead line for a minute or two.

"Well this sucks." Dean sighed, breaking the silence.

"It will be okay." Becky tried to reassure him.

"Nothin' abou' this is okay." Dean retorted, moving backwards from the table and turning to hide the pained expression he wore due to the reoccurring pain in his head.

"It'll be fine, it's always fine." Becky stood, walking closer so she would be able to comfort him. She understood now what Chuck had meant by "sometimes he's not," this wasn't the Dean Winchester she had read about over the years. "It's not that bad." She repeated the line she had used frequently whilst babysitting during high school when the children had gotten upset.

Dean turned back to look at Becky with a look that was both confused and annoyed. "Not tha' bad? I'm four years ol' and we don' know why. In the pas' 48 hours I have been cursed by a witch who isn' ac'ally a witch, attacked by a demon, twice," He raised to fingers to emphasise his point, "Spwained my wis', was angel woofied and now we have no idea how to turn me back or even where to star' lookin'." Dean said hurriedly without taking a single breath. "An' you're sayin' 'i's not tha' bad.' Wha's your defition of bad then?" Dean asked angrily before he turned back around and stormed up the stairs, slamming the door shut behind him and putting a chair in front of it so no-one else could enter.

_I have to fix this. No-one else is doing anything_, he thought to himself.

He began to gather things from his duffel bag on the bed, struggling to pronounce the spell correctly, but eventually he got it right. For a minute nothing happened but then he heard the gruff, English accent say, "Wow, I'd heard rumours but I wasn't sure whether to believe them or not. You look good, what moisturiser do you use, I've been meaning to find a new one."

"Shu' up Cwowley." Dean snapped, unable to handle any more comments about his size.

Crowley laughed at Dean's speech impediment. "You're the one who summoned me. What do you want anyway? Interested in selling your soul for a new teddy bear?" He asked mockingly, Dean didn't reply, just looked down at his feet. "You're actually considering selling your soul." He commented, rather surprised, raising his eyebrows in amazement. "I wish I could make that deal with you," He said smirking.

"So you can turn me back?" Dean asked.

"No," Crowley said grudgingly. "One, you're two young to agree, there would be a breach in the contract." Dean's brow furrowed at the rule he had not been aware of. "And sorry to disappoint, but I couldn't even reverse this if you were eligible for the deal. Whatever this is, it's more powerful than me, and that's saying something." His words were draped in envy.

"Wha'?" Dean asked, confused by the demon.

"I can't interfere with this kind of magic; it's ancient, older than me, older than hell." Crowley said, triggering another inquisitive look from Dean. "You must've really pissed someone off if they found a way to pull this off; I've only seen it happen one other time." He smirked once again.

"Do you at leas' know wha' i' is?" Dean queried optimistically.

"Personally, no, I don't." Crowley sighed, rolling his eyes at Dean's defeated expression. "Look, your no use to anyone like this, you'll never be able to stop Lucifer, and frankly it's pathetic." Dean looked up with an offended look. "Talk to that trickster friend of yours, last I heard he has the most experience in this." And with that he was gone.

"Dean?" Chuck's voice came from the other side of the door, accompanied with knocking; the chair barricading the door shook as he tried to open the door. Dean pulled back the chair so Chuck was able to open the door. "Who were you talking to?"

Dean opened his mouth, but the words that were spoken did not come from him.

"Crowley." Said the angel who was now standing behind him.

* * *

AN: Here's the next chapter, thank you for all the positive responses on the previous one and I hope you all enjoy this one too. Good guesses on who it would be, but it's Gabriel. I hope you like the twist, and I think you'll like where the story goes. I have done _a lot _of research for it. But anyway, until next time, enjoy!


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

"Cas?" Dean asked, surprised by the angels sudden appearance.

"Crowley?" Chuck asked, unfazed by the angel's presence and more concerned that Dean had been talking with a demon.

"Your brother brought you here in order to protect you, that's what we agreed upon, and you decide to summon a demon?" Castiel's usual indifferent tone was on angry.

"Bwought me here? Don't you mean you two abandoned me here?" Dean asked irritated.

"We did not abandon you." Castiel insisted.

"Yeah, well I though' Cwowley migh' know wha' di' this since no-one else seems to have any idea wha's goin' on." Dean growled, receiving almost guilty looks from Chuck and Castiel. "An' he di', he said we shou' talk to Gabwiel. So go on," he waved his hand as an indication for Castiel to summon the fellow angel.

"Go where?" Castiel asked, confused as ever.

Dean sighed, "You know, call him or use tha' angel wadio thin', or wha'ever you do to call e'other." Dean climbed to sit on the bed, waiting for the angel to contact Gabriel.

"You really trust Crowley?" Chuck asked him, from the visions he'd had that involved the demon, he hadn't come across as a very trustworthy person, actually he'd come across as the complete opposite.

"He's a demon, Dean." Castiel added, emphasising Chuck's point.

"Well, i's our only lead and I'm sick of this." He said gesturing to his age regressed body.

"Sam's back tomorrow, right?" Chuck asked, hoping to find a way to buy them some time. The last thing he needed was another angel in his house, especially one with such a cruel sense of humour. "So why don't you at least wait until he gets back. He might've found a way to reverse the spell by then anyway." He prayed this would keep Dean from summoning the archangel.

"Fine, I'll wait till Sam ge's back so you can stop glawing a' me Cas." Dean groaned, moving his hand to stifle his yawn. Chuck sighed, relieved they had momentarily averted summoning Gabriel. "Wha' are you doin' here anyway? I though' you an' Sam were a team now." Dean questioned, still resentful that his brother had gone on a hunt without him.

"Sam thought it would be best for me to stay here with you, ensure that no harm was inflicted on you." He explained, Dean pouted, annoyed that his brother thought he needed another babysitter. "What happened to your arm?" Castiel asked, already feeling like he had failed his objective.

"I spwained i' when we wen' to the park." Dean explained, strategically leaving out the part involving the bullies.

"He was pushed over by an older kid." Chuck added, unaware Dean hadn't planned not mentioning that part.

"Why would someone push you over?" Castiel asked. "There would be no benefit to that."

"He di' i' 'cause he was a bully; tha's wha' they do." Dean explained bitterly. "An' can we no' mention the bully to Sam?" he looked up at chuck. "I don' wan' him to thin' I'm even more pathe'ic."

"Okay, I guess." Chuck replied, suddenly guilty for telling Castiel the truth.

"Do you want me to heal your arm?" Castiel offered, raising his hand in preparation.

"No." Dean protested, thinking about Chuck's invitation to Lucy and Clara and how it would seem weird that his wrist had completely healed overnight. "I' doesn' even hur' tha' much." He said, biting back the scream of pain he wanted to release when he moved his bandaged arm to illustrate his point.

"If that's what you wish." Castiel complied, despite seeing the obvious pain Dean was in.

"Do you want to go to sleep now?" Chuck asked when Dean yawned for a second time, this one lasting longer.

"No," Dean fought, rubbing his eyes tiredly. "I'm no' tired." He claimed around another yawn.

"Are you certain?" Castiel asked, recognising the human indication of tiredness.

"Yeah," Dean said rapidly blinking to keep himself awake. "I's only eigh' o'clock." He stated, this was still considered early afternoon to his adult self.

"A child's body needs a vast quantity of sleep in order to develop and function correctly." Castiel pointed out.

"So, I'm no' ac'ually a ki'. I developed jus' fine." Dean yawned sleepily, laying his head down on the pillow, eyes fluttering closed. "I'm wi' awake." He said dreamily before drifting off into sleep.

"I think he was lying." Castiel observed seriously, Chuck smiled, amused at how the angel didn't understand humans at all, his point was emphasised when Castiel tilted his head, confused to why Chuck was smirking.

Dean threw his arm out, searching for something and becoming jittery when he couldn't find it. Chuck rushed downstairs when he realised what Dean was searching for; he returned within the minute, passing a confused looking Becky on the stairs, and placed the teddy bear in Dean's outstretched arm. Dean pulled zeppelin close to his chest and settled once again, sleeping peacefully.

The next morning Dean awoke to see Castiel perched on the end of the bed. He looked down at his body and realised he was not wearing the clothes he had fallen asleep in. "Who the hell pu' me in pyjamas?" Dean asked, pulling his thumb out of his mouth embarrassedly mid-sentence when he realised he had been sucking on it.

"I did," Castiel said, turning his head to address Dean. "That's what Sam did yesterday, aren't you meant to sleep in them?" He asked.

"Yes, but it doesn't mean you can go and play dress up with me. I'm not a Barbie doll." He said while struggling to change his clothes, pulling a new t-shirt on that had pictures of multi-coloured dinosaurs on it.

"What's a 'Barbie doll'?" Castiel asked, watching as Dean tried to place one leg into his jeans.

"I' doesn' ma'er," Dean couldn't help but notice the similarities between his conversations with Castiel and Clara.

Castiel helped Dean finish getting dressed and then followed him downstairs. Castiel continued to follow and observe Dean while he ate breakfast and spent the majority of the morning playing with the toys Sam had bought him the previous day.

It was just before 12 o'clock when there was a knock at the door. Becky made her way through the minefield of toys scattered on the floor, careful not to step on any like Chuck had earlier that morning- who knew a 5" plastic hulk figure could cause so much pain. "Who are you?" she asked the beautiful stranger.

"I'm not sure if I have the right address." She replied, stepping back from Becky's intense gaze.

"Dean!" Clara squealed in excitement, running past Becky and her mom to greet her friend with an immobilising hug. Castiel, who was sat cross-legged opposite Dean, tilted his head, unsure whether the young girl was harming Dean or not, judging by the smile that Dean wore he chose not to intervene.

"Oh, Lucy, hi." Chuck greeted, fumbling his way through the living room to get to the front door. "Come in." Lucy nodded her head, and when Becky finally stepped to the side, she walked inside.

"Hi, I hope we're not interrupting anything. Clara's just been really excited about seeing Dean again; she's been talking about him all morning and I just couldn't take anymore of her nagging."

"Shut up, mom." Clara moaned, embarrassed by her mom's account of the day's events.

"You're her mom?" Becky was shocked, she had assumed they were sisters or Lucy was a nanny. "I'm sorry, you just look really young."

"Um, thanks I guess." Lucy laughed awkwardly.

"Oh, Lucy this is Becky, Becky this is Lucy." Chuck introduced the two.

"I'm his girlfriend." Becky blurted out.

"Okay, well it's nice to meet you Becky." She said fondly as her and Becky shook hands.

"Come on through," Chuck insisted since they were still stood in the doorway. "Be careful where you step." He cautioned as they stepped into the toy covered living room.

"Don't worry; I have a gold medal in avoiding toys." She joked following him. She smiled when she saw Dean beaming and laughing with Clara, she still felt guilty about what had happened at the toy store, seeing that he was okay and happy reduced the amount of remorse that was clawing at her. She knelt down in front of him. "Hey buddy, how's your arm?"

"S'okay." He replied with a shrug.

"You forgot this yesterday." She said pulling the crossbow out of the bag she was carrying.

"Thanks Lucy." He said ripping open the box.

"You got a crossbow?" Chuck asked, he should have guessed Dean would've chosen something like that.

"It isn't actually a crossbow. It's made of plastic." Castiel pointed out.

Lucy laughed, blushing slightly having only just noticed him. "Who are you?" Clara asked. "I like your coat."

"Thank you, yours is also pleasant." He commented, causing Clara to beam proudly from the compliment she had received about her orange coat.

"This is Cas." Dean explained. "Tha's clawa an' tha's Lucy." He said, pointing to either one in turn.

"It's nice to meet you Cas," Lucy said, trying not to giggle like a school girl as she shook his hand. "Are you Dean's brother?" she asked, recalling that Chuck had mentioned an older brother.

"No," Dean said between laughter.

"Dean's correct; I'm not related to him." Castiel explained, unsure why Lucy was giggling at his response.

"He's a fwiend." Dean corrected her.

"Can we play outside?" Clara asked her mom after her and Dean had finished inspecting the crossbow. Lucy looked towards Chuck to confirm this was acceptable.

"Sure, if they want to." Chuck said, Dean and Clara a blur as they ran past him, Castiel following Dean as he had done all morning. Once out in the cold, Dean put on his hat, gloves and coat he had grabbed from the chair, Clara was already dressed in the suitable attire since she hadn't bothered to take her outerwear off.

She threw herself onto the ground, "C'mon let's make snow angels." She pulled Dean down by his good arm to lie down next to her. Castiel tilted his head to watch as the two children threw their arms and legs out repeatedly, Dean struggled due to the lack of use of one arm. They stood up to survey their work. "They don't really look like angels," Clara noted, staring down at the two undistinguishable shapes.

"Angels are not made from snow," Castiel pointed out.

"Shu' up Cas." Dean warned him, not wanting him to reveal that he was in fact an angel.

"Do you know what an angel looks like?" Clara asked Castiel.

"Yes, but angels don't have a physical presence aside from their vessel."

"Wow, how do you know that?" Clara asked, intrigued by Castiel's knowledge.

"Because I am an angel of the lord." Castiel said, Dean buried his face into his palm.

"If you're an angel where are your wings? And why aren't you in heaven? And I thought angels wore white dresses." Castiel tilted his head in response to her questions; before he could provide answers to them she started talking again. "I'm an angel in the nativity we're doing. I was a donkey but Sarah Morley broke her leg so now I get to be an angel." She explained, "Were you there when Jesus was born?" she asked.

"yes." Castiel replied.

"Cool. So you hunt ghosts and have angel friends?" Clara asked Dean, Castiel also stared at Dean when he heard Clara mention hunting ghosts but remained silent.

"Yeah," he was surprised she was so accepting of all things supernatural.

"That's awesome." She grinned. "Let's build a snowman." She suggested, running towards a mound of snow and waiting for Dean and Castiel to join her; after nearly two hour of playing in the snow Dean, Clara and Castiel returned to the warmth of the indoors.

"Clara we have to go in a minute, okay?" Lucy told her daughter as she finished her second cup of coffee.

"Why?" Clara whined.

"Because we have to go to your uncles." Lucy said.

"Five more minutes? Please" Clara asked, nudging Dean to contribute to the pleading.

"Okay, but then we _have_ to go." Lucy said, smiling as Dean and Clara ran to make the most of their limited time. Castiel sat down beside her on the last chair, "Sorry if Clara was a handful out there, she's just energetic." Lucy apologised to him.

"My hands were never filled." Castiel replied. Lucy laughed, thinking it was a joke.

Five minutes soon turned into twenty, the adults all talking in the kitchen and Dean and Clara playing in the living room; but when Lucy began to receive texts from her brother she dragged herself away from the table and helped Clara into her coat.

"Thanks, it's been really fun today." She said to Chuck and Becky. "Say thank you Clara."

"Thanks," Clara said with a pout, unwilling to leave. "Can we come back tomorrow?" she asked with hopeful eyes.

"I'm not sure if Dean's going to be here tomorrow." Clara's eyes became tearful, "His brother's supposed to be coming later."

Clara wrapped her arms around Dean, "Don't go, I'll miss you." She almost cried into the top of his head.

"I'll mis'u too." Dean said ignoring the overwhelming feeling to cry that was consuming him; the headache that had returned was not helpful in this.

"Well, it was nice to meet you Dean." Lucy said, ruffling his hair when Clara pulled herself away. "Bye." She waved to the three adults. "Come on Clara." She picked up the now crying girl and walked out to her car.

"Are you okay?" Chuck asked Dean who was dabbing his eyes with his sleeve.

"I'm fine," he whispered, wandering over to the couch to distract himself with cartoons. Chuck and Becky returned to the kitchen, worried about how Dean was reacting and how differently it was to how his usual self would behave. Becky had always remembered babysitting to be a lot easier, although the children she had looked after didn't have a background like Dean had; considering everything he'd gone through she was surprised at how stable he seemed.

Nearly an hour later Chuck and Becky's conversation was interrupted by the familiar voice. "Chuck, what happened to Dean's arm?" Chuck looked up to see Sam standing in the kitchen doorway.

"Sam, how did you get in?" Chuck asked, standing up to greet him.

"I le' him in." Dean said standing beside his brother.

"Dean, I told you not to open the door to anyone." Chuck scolded him.

"Bu' i's Sammy." Dean said.

"You didn't know it was Sam when you opened the door though." He said. He couldn't even imagine what could have happened if it had been the demon from the past couple of days, or any other supernatural creature at that.

"Sowwy." Dean hung his head in shame.

"It's okay." Chuck said, he hadn't expected Dean to react in that way, and judging by the expressions Sam and Becky wore, neither did they.

"Hi Sam," Becky waved, grinning at him.

"Hi Becky," Sam nodded. "So, what happened to Dean's arm?"

"I tol' you, I fell over a' the park." Dean said, glaring at chuck.

"Yeah, he slipped on the snow." Chuck lied, remembering his promise he had made to Dean. Sam nodded yet he was still unconvinced. "Did you find anything? To change Dean back?" Chuck asked optimistically, changing the subject before their lie could be unravelled.

"No, no-one's heard of anything like this happening before nor has any idea how to reverse. This seems to be the only Case." He sighed, "Sorry Dean." he added noticing the large green eyes look down pitifully.

"So, can we summon Gabwiel now?" Dean asked impatiently.

"Why?" Sam asked.

"'Cause Cwowley said he knew what was happenin'."

"You talked to Crowley?" Sam was furious with Dean's lack of consideration for his safety.

"Yeah, ge' over i' Sammy. I'm still al'ie aren' I, an' he tol' me tha' Gabwiel will know somin'." Dean said, ignoring Sam's disapproving looks.

"Are you sure you want to summon him, I mean after last time…"

"Sam, if i's gonna turn me back, we're doin' i'." Dean insisted.

"Fine, let's get this over with." Sam sighed, as Castiel stepped forward to summon the archangel.

* * *

AN: Here's the next chapter (to be honest I'm not too happy with it, but I hope you enjoy it) and the next one should be up soon. Thank you for all your reviews they let me know if you're enjoying it or not. Anyway, until next time, enjoy!


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Dean, Sam and Castiel stood in the living room, Dean standing considerably closer to his brother than he would do in usual circumstances. Chuck and Becky lingered a few feet behind them, not wanting to get in the way of the Winchesters' quest, but at the same time not wanting to be excluded from the action (this was mainly Becky, although Chuck wanted to keep an eye on things since he still hadn't forgiven them for what happened to his house the last time the Winchesters had been there and an archangel had shown up, he really wasn't looking forward to encountering another one.)

"You ready?" Sam asked his brother.

Dean nodded his head, going against all his body's instincts which had been the same since the curse had changed him, hide in the corner and cry until it was over. This was all becoming too much for him, the vulnerability, the pitying looks he was receiving, the continuous bad news and disappointment, the uncontrollable emotions and, worst of all, the headaches that just kept getting worse and worse. However, Dean knew he had to keep going, it was the only way to change him back. So he spent another couple of minutes mentally preparing himself for the verbal abuse and insults he was going to receive once they summoned the archangel, but if being called a couple of mean names was the price of becoming an adult again, well it was worth it. "Okay Cas, do it." Sam said after he was certain Dean was okay, or as close to okay as you could be in this situation.

Castiel closed his eyes, lowering his head momentarily; he opened them again to see Gabriel standing in the centre of the room.

"The prophet's house, smart move, I wouldn't have guessed you were here." Gabriel said looking towards Chuck and then surveying the room.

"Hello Gabriel." Castiel said.

"I thought you three were still mad at me." He said with a smug grin. "Dean, loving the new look, very 1983." Dean glared at him. "Wow, remind me not to take away your pacifier."

"Bi'e me." Dean spat.

"Good to see your size hasn't affected your wit." He commented. "No need to be mean; you're the ones who called me, why is that anyway? Last time I saw you, you were busy with your crusade to prevent the apocalypse. How that going by the way?" Gabriel asked sarcastically with another smug grin.

"Why d'ya think we called'ya?" Dean asked the archangel rhetorically.

"What this?" he waved his hand in Dean's direction. "You think I did this?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, did you?" Sam asked. "It does seem like something you'd do."

"No, I didn't do this. I wish I did. Why didn't I do this, it's hilarious. I mean look at the two of you." _He had a point_, Sam thought, along with everyone else in the room. Dean was bruised, bandaged and looked miserable and Sam was on edge, bags under his eyes and had almost made himself sick with worry. "You're more dysfunctional than the Adam's family."

"So you have nothin' to do with this?" Dean confirmed, irritated with himself for actually believing what Crowley had said.

"Well,"

"Well wha'?" Dean pressed.

"I didn't do anything, but I do know who did do this." Gabriel said.

"Who?" Dean asked, almost jumping for joy at the first positive news he'd heard since being transformed.

"An old friend of mine; her name is Idunn, she's the keeper of apples."

"The wha'?" Dean asked.

"The keeper of apples, she's basically a God. I know her from my days as Loki." He explained. Becky leaned forward; she was entranced by witnessing the scene that she ordinarily only read about first hand. Chuck wasn't paying complete attention; he had begun to hear faint whispers in his ear. "She was given the task of protecting and harvesting the apples that can grant eternal youth."

"So if she di' this, can she turn me back?" Dean asked.

"How should I know? I'm surprised she did this in the first place, the last time I saw her she vowed to get out of the Norse God life for good, as far as I know she hasn't dabbled in it until now." Dean's face fell, bottom lip sticking out and trembling at the harsh response.

"Do you at least know where she is?" Sam asked, conscious of how upset his brother had become.

"Like I said, we haven't spoken for some time."

"D'ya know where she is?" Dean all but barked.

"The last I heard she was in Florida, but I couldn't be sure. She's in hiding, wanted out completely. Has some sort of cloaking spell to stop any over God from finding her whereabouts." He said. "I heard you guys know how difficult it is to find a God who doesn't want to be found." He looked at Castiel when he said this; the other angel lowered his gaze in response.

"Sam, I think Zachariah's coming, I can hear him." Chuck said, interrupting the awkward brotherly moment between Castiel and Gabriel.

"Of course he is." Gabriel said.

"Wha'?" Dean asked.

"He's found you now." Gabriel said as if it were as simple as knowing the alphabet. "Well, your soul has a different aura at the moment, it's almost unrecognisable. And since Castiel is running low on 'angel mojo' as you call it, Zachariah hasn't been able to track the three of you down. But now, an archangel in the prophet's house, that's something to check out. It has Winchester written all over it." Gabriel explained, Castiel furrowed his brow considering the likelihood of Gabriel's theory.

"They're getting closer, Sam." Chuck updated him, although it was fairly obvious since the room had begun to quake.

Sam grabbed their belongings which had already been packed, Dean grabbing Zeppelin, and moved towards the door. "Can you at least come with us to help us find her?" Sam asked Gabriel.

"What like a road trip? No thanks Thelma." He replied. "I have better things to do than babysit Deano."

"Pwees." Dean almost begged with brimming tears. Gabriel stared down at him, he wanted to reply with a snarky comment and leave, watch the Winchesters flounder in another screwed-up situation, but the pathetic look of desperation in Dean's large green eyes, that were shiny with unshed tears, made it too difficult to say no.

"Fine, I'll meet you and Louise here," he looked down, hiding the satisfaction he felt when he saw Dean's hopeful face, even the insult hadn't dampened Dean's happiness. "When you get to Florida; until then I'll keep Zachariah distracted." Gabriel clicked his fingers and was gone; the shaking room calmed, Gabriel had brought them time to get out of there.

"You should go, like now." Chuck said, still hearing the whispers in his head.

"Bye, chuck. Thanks." Dean said in almost a whimper, chewing the inside of his gum again to prevent tears and avoid further humiliation.

"Right, I'll grab the rest of our stuff. Dean the impala's parked out front." That was all Sam had to say for Dean to sprint outside with a maniacal smile across his face.

"Hiya baby," Dean whispered, running his hand along the front wheel, "D'ya miss me?"

"Cars do not express emotions." Castiel informed him. Dean jumped, he hadn't realised the angel had followed him out to the car.

"Thanks for the upday Cas." he said, climbing into the driver's seat. "Wha' woul' CNN do withou' you?"

"Dean, get out of the front seat." Sam shouted from the back of the car, placing the bags into the trunk.

"Why?" Dean whined.

"Because it's against the law for a four year old to sit up front." Sam said slamming the trunk hurriedly, wanting to leave as soon as possible.

"Oh yeah, 'cause we're pos'er boys for law abiding ci'izens."

"If we get pulled over by the cops we're only going to get questioned." Sam said, "two men in a car with a kid who has no ID..."

"I do have ID." He said through the open car window.

"Yeah, most of it fake and says your 30 years old." Sam retorted, "Do you want child services to get involved?"

"This sucks." Dean pouted

Dean clambered into the back, sighing as audibly as he could when he sat down; Castiel sitting in the seat next to him.

"I'll be right back; I just have to talk to Chuck for a minute." Sam said, looking around the street for any possible threats before walking back to the house.

"What's up?" Dean asked Castiel, who looked uneasy, while they waited for Sam to return.

"Are you sure this is wise? Leaving Chuck's house to spend the next 16 hours on the road," Castiel asked him, "There are many powerful enemies of yours who are looking for you."

"Exac'ly, best to keep movin'. The longer we stay in one place, the easier i' will be for them to fin' us. One demon alweady knows where I am an' I'm pre'y cer'ain Zachariah will figure out Gabwiel's stun' soon enough so this place isn' a haven." He said. "An' the sooner we ge' this Idunn to turn me back, the be'er."

"I suppose you're right, it's just you're very vulnerable at the moment and…" he paused when he met Dean's gaze.

Dean attempted to smile, "Cas, you don' have to wowwy abou' me, I'm still me an' I can still kick a demon's ass; I've been learnin' to defen' myself since I was this age anyway."

"You could have been killed by a demon on two occasions and you only escaped it out of pure luck; you're letting your emotions get the best of you and you can be easily manipulated if Zachariah did mage to get to you. You have already gone through a lot over the past two days and your health is dwindling quickly." Dean looked down with tearful eyes.

"Cas, I'm fine. I pwomise." Castiel nodded sorrowfully, "Anyway, I won' exac'ly be helpless with you an' Sammy awoun'."

"But we can't always be around." Castiel felt even more responsible for Dean's safety than he had done before the transformation. Dean met his gaze once more; even Castiel, the one person he thought would continue to treat him maturely, thought he needed constant protection from others.

"Thanks for everything Chuck." Sam said shaking his hand.

"It's okay, just be careful." Sam nodded.

"If you have a vision of anything,"

"Yeah, I know I'll call." Chuck said, finishing Sam's sentence.

"Okay, well we should hit the road, I don't know how much more time Gabriel can buy us." Chuck nodded, feeling torn. On one hand he was pleased Dean would be reverted to his original age and he was over the moon that he no longer had the burden of caring for him, which was an impossible task when trouble seemed to follow the Winchesters, but he was also going to miss the presence of a child in his house, it was different to the usual, miserable atmosphere.

"Bye Sam." Chuck said, watching the temporarily older Winchester climb into the driver's seat as he and Becky waved.

"Have you got your seatbelt on?" Sam asked as he fastened his own; Dean was pleased his brother had interrupted when he did; he was starting to feel uncomfortable after what Castiel had just said.

"I'm no' an idio' Sam." Dean said, silently fastening the seatbelt he had previously forgotten about.

"I was just making sure; you're just so…" he paused for a second, absorbing the reflection of the tiny figure in the rear-view mirror. Dean was lost in the back seat, his little legs barely reached the edge of the seat and his head couldn't be seen from outside of the car since it did not reach the window. "Small." Dean rolled his eyes, great more patronizing. "Maybe we should get you a car seat."

"If you even twy to bwing one of those near my car, I will kill you." Dean threatened.

"Fine, but if we get pulled over by the cops you can explain it to them." Sam replied.

"I think someone nee's to explain this to me firs'." He said with a sigh, "Are we weally huntin' down a God of apples to ask for help? Can we twus' her, I mean, the Gods we've me' aren' the nices' of folks."

"I don't know, I'll do some research tonight; we'll probably have to book a motel room, you need sleep and it's getting pretty late." Dean rolled his eyes again but didn't disagree; Sam had a point, it was already five pm and the drive would take nearly 16 hours. And, although Dean wouldn't admit it, he was becoming pretty tired already and knew he would need sleep soon. "How did you pissed of a God in the first place?" Sam asked hoping to lighten the mood.

"I don' know how anyone coul' be pisse' off with me." Dean said with a sarcasttic smirk.

"It seems to be a gift you possess." Castiel said innocently. Sam couldn't help but laugh and Dean's tiny, offended features made it ten times funnier.

* * *

AN: Hope you all enjoy the next chapter and thank you for all the reviews for the last one. I hope you like the twist now you finally know who's behind it. The reference Gabriel makes is to the movie Thelma and Louise which is a great road trip movie. I'm back at school this week and have a really busy schedule so i won't be able to update as often, sorry, but it should still be around once a week. Well, until next time, enjoy!


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

They had been driving non-stop for roughly 5 hours, they had just passed the border into Virginia half an hour ago and still had 11 more hours of driving until they reached Florida. The majority of those 5 hours had been filled with a silent state of boredom and contemplating, the occasional comment of scenery or song choice either brother disagreed on, Castiel choosing to remain silent in the Winchesters' disagreements, never faltering his apprehensive gaze from Dean's small figure. Dean didn't notice, and if he did he wouldn't bother telling the angel to stop, he was too tired to do anything, to fight against the treatment he was receiving from both Sam and Castiel, to fight against his own self-doubt and apprehension, to fight against the raging headache that was becoming evermore present in his wearying mind.

Dean's head had been lolling with tiredness for the past three hours. His head bobbed along to the movement of the car, every turn, bump and brake shook his head violently, sending it left or right, sometimes colliding with the impala's door. When his head would stay up long enough, he stared absent-mindedly out of the window, struggling to keep his eyes open to see the repetitive backdrop of the highway; his eyes widened whenever he caught a glimpse of the elaborate Christmas decorations some houses sported when they passed suburban areas. As the hours dragged on, he began to give in to the sleepiness; he rested his head on Zeppelin's, the familiarity of the journey from the backseat reminded him of his youth that was mostly spent in this very way. The late nights staring out of the window as his father drove from job to job, the loneliness of it all when Sam had fallen asleep hours before him, Dean always clinging on to what consciousness he had left in order to watch over his baby brother.

"Dean," Sam said when he noticed Dean's entire body dip forwards, his exhausted frame unable to support its own weight any longer.

"What?" Dean asked, snapping his head up and blinking rapidly so he could analyse his surroundings, ignoring the protesting sting of his overworked eyes.

"Are you tired? Or hungry? We haven't eaten in a while." Sam probed, worrying the little body would collapse due to starvation and exhaustion. _How often were kids supposed to eat?_ Sam wasn't even sure what Dean had eaten today, he assumed he'd had some form of breakfast but had no idea what else he'd eaten. _Kids should probably eat more than once a day, right? _He asked himself, the only knowledge he had about kids came from being one and the occasional episode of Full House; he was far from being an expert.

"Yeah, a bi'." Dean replied groggily, finally acknowledging his rumbling stomach he'd been neglecting for the past two hours.

"Okay, we'll stop at the next motel and find a place to get some food." Sam said, squinting to read a sign which gave directions to the nearest rest stop. Sam pulled into the parking lot of the second motel he found, discarding the first one that looked more like a meth lab than a motel. This one seemed more family friendly, although probably not to functioning families, and was part of a complex of various shops, a diner, a bar and an arcade. The motel looked like something pulled out of a cheap 70s movie starring some b-list actor you'd never heard of, most of the building was covered in dark panelling and the doors to each motel room were a dark shade of green.

Sam opened the back door for Dean, waiting patiently as he fought against Castiel's attempts to help unfasten the seatbelt, insisting that he could do it himself, until finally letting the angel assist him out of the car after struggling for a couple of minutes. Dean also insisted he was fine walking but sagged slightly, traipsing behind Sam who held his hand tightly. Castiel followed them, walking at the same slow speed a couple of paces behind Dean, ensuring nothing snuck up on the fatigued brothers. The cold air nipped at Dean's exposed skin, causing his small body to shiver making it harder to keep up with Sam's huge strides.

"Dude, slow down." Dean whined as Sam practically dragged him across the snowy ground. Sam did slow his pace, but only slightly, only wanting to be out in the open for as long as necessary. In the empty parking lot they were easy targets for all things supernatural.

"Dean stand by Cas for a minute." Sam instructed his brother when they entered the small check in room. The insideof the building looked as old as the outside and look like it hadn't been refurbished since the movie was filmed. The layout reminded Sam of a hunting cabin, pretty empty with wooden furniture and murky wallpaper. The carpet was a dark red, covered in stains and footprints it had gained over the years. There were a couple of armchairs, a coffee table and a check-in desk. After his brother promised he would stay close to the angel, Sam approached the front desk. He looked back over his shoulder to see Castiel grip Dean's hand like Sam had done in the parking lot, Dean sighed but didn't squirm like he had done earlier, he was to tired and simply excepted the child-like treatment.

"Hi, I need a room for the night." Sam told the elderly man behind the desk, he'd probably worked there since the motel had last been renovated.

"Okay," he drawled, tiredly looking through the check-in book on the desk, yet another thing that had not been updated since the 70s. "How many are in your party?"

"Three, but we only need two beds." Sam said glancing back over his shoulder to see Dean distracting himself by looking around the room, pupils widening and dilating as he tried to stop himself from falling asleep; Castiel's eyes were fixed on Sam and the elderly man, trying to determine whether the man was a threat or not. Sam reconsidered his request, _does Cas need a bed? _Before he could ask to change the number of beds the man behind the desk nodded.

"Oh, I see." He said, tilting his head in order to look at the other man and small child Sam had been looking at. "Cute family you have there." He commented, scribbling something in the book.

"No, it's not like that. He's my brother." Sam waved his hand dismissively. The man's eyes widened, thinking Sam was talking about the older man. Sam decided to shut up then, not wanting to make things any worse than they already were.

"So, is it just the one night?" the man asked, choosing not to delve into the customers personal life, that was something he'd learned not to do over his long career at the motel.

"Yeah."

"That will be $45." Sam handed him the exact amount in cash, they were starting to run low but he still chose not to use a credit card. He knew he was going to find some cash soon, but it was usually dean who hustled in bars and he couldn't exactly do it in this state. Yet another task Sam was going to have to take on now that he was the older brother. The man behind the desk turned towards a stash of unorganised keys, each with a key ring stating the room number it opened. He searched through the collection until he found a suitable one.

"Right, well here's your key. Room 7 on the first floor; It's opposite the arcade. It's closed at the moment but your kid can check it out tomorrow, it opens at 10 am. Return your key here tomorrow when you check out."

"Thanks." Sam said accepting the key and deciding not to correct the man; it would probably only cause further befuddling for the elderly man. "Is the diner still open?" he asked, nodding towards the small building with 'CJ's Diner' written in red, neon letters.

"Yeah, but only for another 20 minutes." The man told him, glancing at his watch. Sam looked at his own, noting it was nearly eleven o'clock.

"Okay, thanks again." he smiled and then walked back towards his brother and Castiel. He gave Castiel the key, unsure whether or not Dean would even know what it was in his current state of drowsiness, and told them he'd meet them in the room; he had to grab some food and get some stuff out of the car.

'CJ's Diner' was a tacky, 1950s themed diner with red leather booths, played Elvis on a loop and to top it off had a black and white checker tile floor; but somehow it still looked more modern than the motel. It was deserted bar one man sitting at the counter, slowly sipping a mug of coffee and chatting up the fed up looking waitress who was way out of his league.

"What can I get you?" the waitress asked when Sam sat down in front of the counter, a couple of seats separating him from the other man.

"A salad, 2 coffees and a burger with fries to go please." He recited the order he had placed a million times before remembering Dean's new age, "Wait, make that one coffee, um, a juice, and do you have a kids menu?" He inquired.

"Is that for the burger?" she asked.

"Yeah, how'd you guess?"

"Not many kids come in ordering salads." She said, scribbling on her notepad.

"Right," Sam sighed, messaging the cricks out of his neck.

"I'll get the chef to give you a smaller portion. Is orange juice alright? That's all we have." She checked with him.

"Yeah, yeah, that's fine." Sam replied.

"Okay, they'll be done in a minute. You just wait right there." She said, walking through the swinging doors to pass on the order to the chef.

The man who sat a couple of seats away turned to Sam, sizing him up before slurring, "You should back off man, I've been working on that all night."

Sam stared back, not intimidated by the man's drunken threats; although this man was around the same size as Sam, he'd be surprised if the man could stand up in this state, let alone punch him. "I'm not interested in her, and I don't think she's interested in you."

The drunken man lunged forwards towards Sam, like he'd guessed the man could barely stay up straight, wobbling back and forth he asked, "Do you want to take this outside?" His breath virtually dripping with alcohol.

"I think you should leave now, Frank was it?" The waitress suggested, remerging from the kitchen. Sam was thankful, it's not that he was afraid of the man, he could have probably taken him down in one punch, he was just too tired and if someone called the police how was he going to explain the whole situation with Dean; this was just all a lot easier.

"This isn't over." The drunken man said, jabbing Sam in the shoulder before he staggered out of the diner.

"He's been in here all night, I hope you're alright." She smiled warmly. "So how old is your kid?" she asked making like conversation while he waited for the food.

"He's not my kid, he's my brother and he's four." Sam said, stammering over the 'four'.

"Aw, they're great at that age, right?"

"Yeah, amazing." Sam said, less enthusiastically. Kids may be great at that age, but he much preferred the adult Dean when it came to things like fighting demons and preventing the apocalypse. Sam's sarcasm seemed to have caused a lull in the conversation; luckily there was a ding from the kitchen, indicating Sam's food was ready. The waitress disappeared through the swinging doors again, returning moments later with two bags containing his order.

"Here you go; I hope you and your brother enjoy it. If you're still around tomorrow you should come here for breakfast, we have a really good breakfast menu for kids." She waved as he exited the diner, nodding at her recommendation.

Sam stopped at the impala to grab a bag of necessities for him and Dean, slamming the trunk once he got them and then walked to the motel room.

"Hey Dean," Sam said as he closed the door behind him. The motel room was pretty similar to the reception, the same stained red carpet, the same wooden furniture and the same dull wallpaper. Like he had requested, the room had two twin beds as well as a small, basic kitchen area, a table with four chairs and in the corner, there was a cheap, old fashioned TV that Sam doubted would work. There was a door that led into what Sam assumed was the bathroom, he was almost scared to see the state of it after viewing the room, maybe the meth lab would have been a better choice, you know how clean those chemistry geeks were. As he laid down the salt lines near the salt lines in front of the door and windows, he said, "I got you a burger and fries."

Dean didn't respond, he was face down in the middle of the bed furthest from the door. Sam hated to wake him but he had to eat. He shook him awake, green eyes shot open when Dean felt the hand on his shoulder.

"Wha'?" Dean threw his functioning hand up into a defensive position, expecting some sort of emergency.

Sam grabbed Dean's hand in his much larger one, lowering it as he tried to become the focus of Dean's darting eyes. When Dean finally stopped freaking out, Sam explained why he had woken him up, "You need to eat."

"Oh, wigh'." Dean pulled his hand out of Sam's and pushed himself off of the bed, he slowly shuffled towards the table and the scent of food. He sat down and tucked into the small portion of food Sam had bought him, sipping on the carton of juice, grumbling about how cartons were for babies. Sam and Castiel joined Dean at the table, Castiel watched the Winchesters as they ate in silence, Dean too tired to strike up a conversation and Sam too distracted by all the information Gabriel had dumped on them. If it really was a god who did this, they needed to find a way to defend themselves against it and figure out how powerful it was, and if it could be stopped. He sipped his coffee, appreciating the caffeine buzz it provided, this would be what let him research throughout the night.

Dean left a quarter of his food, almost falling asleep in it a couple of times before admitting defeat. "I'm gonna ge' some sleep."

"Okay, your stuff is on your bed." Sam nodded towards the duffel bag that had been dumped on the bed. "Do you need any help getting changed?" Sam asked, remembering Dean's previous struggles with getting dressed a couple of days ago.

"No, I'll be fine. I'm ge'in' sick of you two thinkin' I'm some sor'a toy." Dean yawned as he pulled out the batman pyjamas and kicked of his shoes. Castiel sat on the bed next to him, offering him assistance as he struggled with his hoodie.

Sam started up his laptop as Dean crawled into bed, Zeppelin wrapped in his arms, he fell asleep almost instantly, but not before he could tell Castiel to get off the bed and stop staring at him. Sam laughed as the angel reluctantly moped back to the table, sitting opposite Sam but keeping his gaze fixed on the corner of the room where Dean slept. Sam began searching for more information about this supposed god, Idunn. Pages and pages of information all blurred together until he could no longer look at the computer screen and joined Castiel in watching over his sleeping brother.

* * *

AN: Thank you for all the kind comments on the previous chapter and I hope you enjoy this one. I really love writing about cute Dean and honestly didn't think it would be this long, oops. I'll update as soon as I can, I'm not sure when that is since I'm super busy at the moment, but until next time, enjoy!


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Sam was woken up by the soft, quiet mumbling coming from the bed a couple of feet away from him. He raised his head from the pillow, opening his eyes as he propped himself up to discover the source of the chatter. Once he blinked the sleep out of his eyes, he was able to see the small figure on the bed next to his own. Dean was sat cross-legged in the centre of the of the bed sucking on a candy cane- where he got it from, Sam had no idea- with a toy in his hand and others scattered around him. Castiel was sitting beside him, watching as the four year old flew his arm around dramatically, making whooshing sound effects. Dean grinned around the candy cane when he noticed Sam was awake, "Mornin' Sammy."

"Morning," Sam ran a hand down his face to wipe away any signs of remaining drowsiness. He reached for his phone and checked the time, 8:36 am. "It's nearly nine." Sam moaned; he'd hoped to have left by now, they still had a 10 hour drive before they got to Florida. "We've got to get moving soon."

Dean looked up from his toys that he'd returned to, previously uninterested in what Sam had been saying. "But we haven' had bweakfas' ye'. I'm starvin'!"

Sam sighed, he had to be clearer when addressing Dean now, apparently kids were very literal. "We're going to get breakfast; I just meant we need to pack up." Dean nodded, satisfied with Sam's answer. "You're eating candy anyway," Sam said, gesturing towards the bag of candy he didn't know Dean had. "You'll spoil your breakfast."

"I told him that." Castiel said looking at Dean with his version of an 'I told you so' look.

"I'll be fine." Dean rolled his eyes and shoved a marshmallow in his mouth just to annoy the pair.

"I need a shower." Sam announced as he rose from the bed, choosing to not be provoked by Dean's childish disobedience.

"Me too," Dean said, words slightly muffled by the candy cane.

"Are you sure you'll be okay in the shower?" Sam asked.

"Why wouldn' I be?" Dean pulled the candy cane out his mouth in an attempt to appear frustrated.

"Well, it's just, I thought kids were supposed to have baths." Dean's expression hardened at the word kid. "I mean, what would happen if you fell over. You could really hurt yourself."

"I'm no' havin' a bath; and even if I wan'ed to, the motel doesn' even have one anyway." Dean said as he moved the toys away from him so he wasn't blockaded by them. "So I'm gonna have a shower." He hopped of the bed and walked halfway to the bathroom, clearly feeling triumphant and independent, before abruptly stopping, staring down at his bandaged arm that posed as an issue. He sighed heavily, rolling his eyes to help him swallow his pride. "Sammy?"

"Yeah," Sam said, now perched on the edge of the bed, anticipating what Dean was going to ask.

"Can you, um," Dean stuttered with embarrassment. "Can you help me with the bandage?"

Dean didn't meet Sam's when his brother knelt down in front of him to remove the bandage. Sam tried to be as gentle as possible when tending to Dean's arm, but despite his efforts he still received winces and the ocCasional sound of pain from his now younger brother. He cursed himself every time he induced this stimulant, as did Dean when he saw Sam's face fall a little further every time he flinched from the pain. It was just a sprained wrist, Dean would have considered himself lucky to just have a sprained wrist if he was still rightful age, he'd probably not even realise he'd been injured had he been himself, but being a kid lowered his pain threshold.

"Thanks," Dean muttered as he wiggled his fingers, only to send sparks of pain shooting up his still swollen arm.

"It's okay. You'll have to put a new one on when you come out of the shower; your wrist hasn't fully healed yet." Sam said as he placed the used bandage in the trash can.

Dean huffed, "This sucks." He looked up to see Sam's sympathetic look, _damn it_, he wasn't meant to say that out loud, _stupid kid reactions_. "Well, see ya in mini'." Dean tried to shrug off his last unintentional comment, realising Sam had read further into it.

"Just leave the door open slightly in Case you fall and shout if you need anything."

"Fine, but no peeking," Dean said light-heartedly, "That goes for you too Cas." the angel who was still sat on Dean's bed, tilted his head, concentrating in order to decipher Dean's comment.

When Sam heard the sound of Cascading water and the soft humming of AC/DC emanate from the bathroom, he turned towards Castiel and asked in a hushed voice, "How did he sleep last night?"

The angel didn't look at Sam, instead his eyes were fixed on the source of the humming. "He was woken by nightmares twice during the night, the first time he was able to get back to sleep, but the second time was more intense. He has been awake since five am."

Sam nodded, he felt terrible that Dean was having such a hard time and he wasn't even able to help. He couldn't even mention anything because he knew Dean would be too stubborn to talk about it and distance himself further. "Did he say anything about them?"

Castiel shook his head, his eyes finally meeting Sam's. "Only that it was 'nothing', he had a pain killer after claiming his head hurt, but said that he was 'fine'."

"Yeah, he seems to be saying that a lot." Sam noted. He was beginning to wonder if Dean had a cold or virus; Chuck had mentioned Dean had experienced some headaches but it hadn't seemed too serious.

"The emotional weight he is burdened with will soon become too much for his young mind; he may soon give into the child part of him." Castiel said.

"What do you mean?" Sam asked, whatever that meant, it didn't sound good.

"He could become four years old mentally; the four year old he was the first time."

"So, no memories after 1983?" Castiel shook his head. "He'd have to grow up all over again." Castiel nodded. "We'd be screwed."

"I believe we already are."

Sam began to collect his notes he had made the night before, organising them into a neat pile, and then reorganising them in order to kill some time. He had to keep himself busy so he didn't think about the possibility of losing his big brother forever. He had noticed Dean was acting more and more like the age he now was, but losing all his memories and actually becoming four years old again? How would anyone expect Sam not to panic?

Since he could find no other way to re-organise his notes, he decided to lay out clothes for when Dean got out the shower; he delved into the duffel bag and pulled out Dean's last pair of clean jeans, a green t-shirt with a robot on it and a royal blue hoodie, Dean's leather jacket was hung on one of the wooden chairs and Sam knew he would grab it before they left. There wasn't as much snow as there was in Ohio but it was still pretty cold, especially for a four year old and Sam didn't want Dean's possible cold to manifest into anything worse.

Finally, the sound of the shower ended and a minute later Dean exited the bathroom with a white hand towel wrapped around his body, a normal sized one was far too big for him and even his smaller substitute tripped him up if he didn't watch his step.

"Took you long enough," Sam said, hurriedly passing his brother as he walked into the steam-filled bathroom. He didn't want Dean to pick up on his panic and start asking questions, if Dean found out about this he would freak out. "Sure you can get dressed on your own?"

Dean released an exaggerated sigh, "Dude, how many times am I gonna have to do i' before you twus' me to ge' dwesse' on my own?" Sam nodded, deciding not to mention that Dean had yet to succeed in getting fully dressed by himself, each time he'd had some form of help.

Sam looked at Castiel, hoping the angel would understand his silent message; it was something he and Dean always did, but Sam was having some trouble communicating wordlessly now that Dean's expressions were almost completely different. He was finding it more and more difficult to know what his big- _now little_, he supposed- brother was thinking. After receiving a comprehending nod from Castiel, Sam headed into the bathroom, looking at his brother once more before shutting the door.

Dean felt like a turtle, rolling helplessly on his back with a t-shirt covering his head and one arm and one leg stuck in the legs of his jeans. He felt the fabric brush against his face, revealing Castiel standing over him, trying to help Dean out of his predicament. Dean- although he wouldn't say it out loud- was grateful Castiel was there to help him; the shower induced numbness was wearing off and the pain of the bruised parts of his body was beginning to surface again. Not to mention the level of embarrassment he would have felt if Sam had come out of the shower to discover him like this.

"Thanks," Dean muttered as the angel straightened the bottom of the t-shirt he now wore over his jeans. Castiel nodded, knowing Dean wouldn't want him to reply verbally. Dean reached out for his jacket, wanting to cover up his rapidly cooling torso; Castiel put a hand on Dean's, preventing him from putting on the jacket.

"It would be wise to wait until your wrist is bandaged before putting on more layers, the long-sleeves may cause difficulty when applying the bandage." He explained.

Dean sighed, "Fine, bu' if I fweeze to death, i's your faul'."

"I don't think it would be possible to freeze to death in this climate, perhaps become ill but it is very unlikely that it would be fatal."

"wha'ever, bu' one single sneeze an' I'm blamin' you." Dean picked up Zeppelin, hoping the soft fur would provide transitory warmth to his upper-body. He waited until Sam came out of the bathroom, fully dressed after changing in there.

"Where's the firs' ai' ki'?" Dean inquired.

"In the car; I'll run and get it quickly. Cas, keep an eye on him."

Dean shone an innocent smile, if Sam didn't know him, he would have thought he was an angel, but he knew that disobedience and defiance that lay in the undertones of Dean's 'innocent' smile.

Dean and Castiel sat on Dean's bed in a less than comfortable silence. Dean was still weary to talk after their conversation the previous day that had ended with him feeling completely humiliated and about as small as a peanut. Sam came back into the motel room, walked over to the bed next to Dean's and sat down opposite his brother, placing the first aid kit next to him. He held out his hand, signalling he wanted Dean to place his fist into Sam's. Dean finally did so after making a mumbled comment about Sam being gay, wanting to hold hands.

"Do I have to wear another sling?" Dean asked when Sam fastened the bandage, almost as well as Lucy had done; he may not have the medical training, but he certainly had the experience.

"Try moving your arm." Sam instructed, testing whether a sling would be required.

Dean raised his arm a couple of inches, trying with all his might to maintain the false smile on his face. "See, I'm fine, I don' nee' one."

Sam nodded noncommittally. "Okay, but if your arm starts hurting you're going to have to put the sling back on. Agreed?"

"Agwee'."

"Come on, let's get some breakfast." Sam said as he gathered his packed duffel bag and began re-packing Dean's belongings which mainly consisted of toys.

"'Kay," Dean said as Castiel helped him into his outerwear. Sam pinched the bridge of his nose when Dean began pulling all the toys out of the duffel bag that Sam had put away, "I nee' them."

"Do you really need all of them at breakfast?" Dean nodded, the collection of toys he held was overflowing out of his arms and he was struggling not to drop all of them. "Look you can't take all of them, but you can take one." Sam bargained.

Dean looked down with a torn expression on his face; it was like asking him to choose what limb he'd like to keep. "Wha' abou' two?"

Sam tried to say no, he really did, but when he looked down at the pleading green eyes and opened his mouth all that came out was "Yes."

Dean skipped along happily, Castiel next to him carrying Zeppelin and a Batman action figure in one arm, trying to grab Dean's darting hand with the other. Castiel was becoming exasperated by the game Dean seemed to find hilarious, but eventually Castiel won and held the little hand tightly.

"You shouldn't play in a parking lot, it's very dangerous." Dean looked down after being scolded and Sam had to hold back a fit of laughter he felt from seeing the unfamiliar, almost noraml- although in this case completely insane- scene.

"Hold up a sec'." Sam called over to them as they neared the impala.

"I though' we were ge'in' bweakfas', you pwomised we woul'." Dean said, tears welling in his eyes at the prospect of not getting food.

"We are, I just need to put our stuff in the trunk." Sam reassured him, praying that he didn't start crying, coincidently Dean had been hoping for the same thing. When he was certain Dean wouldn't start bawling, Sam shoved the bags into the trunk with a little more force than what was necessary. _Wow, children are tiring._ He reminded himself to be more sensitive in the future and watch what he was saying.

They walked into the diner, Castiel and Dean in front, Sam following them, surveying the area for potential threats. After seeing none, Sam returned the small wave he had received from the waitress he had met the previous night, less enthusiastically than she had done though. She hurried over, "Hi there,"

"Hi," Sam said rather awkwardly.

"Is this your brother?" She asked when she saw Dean look up at her with a grin.

"Yeah,"

"I'm Dean." The squeaky voice interrupted before Sam could say anything else.

"It's nice to meet you Dean. Aren't you just the most adorable little thing?" Dean blushed, pulling on Castiel's pant leg to hide his reddening face. "I'll find you guys a table." She said, turning around to lead them to an empty booth. The diner was a lot busier than last night, although that could just be due to the fact that most people were asleep when Sam was last there.

They all climbed into a booth, shuffling along the red leather seats that were about as comfortable as they looked; Castiel and Dean were on one side of the table, Castiel closest to the window, and Sam sat on the opposite.

The waitress disappeared and reappeared moments later with three menus, one that was made up of mostly picture, a colouring book and a pack of six crayons. "Here you go."

"I wan' waffles an' bacon." Dean declared when he saw the image.

"Okay," the waitress said after Sam nodded in confirmation, "Do you want a drink with that?"

"Owange pwees." Dean said with an adorable smile, the waitress swooned and jotted the order down in her notepad.

"Okay honey, and what will it be for you two?" she asked looking between Sam and Castiel.

Sam skimmed the menu, "Egg white omelette and a coffee please."

The waitress nodded then looked at Castiel, "Anything for you?"

"No thank you." He replied.

"Right then, I'll be back with your food in a jiffy." She walked away towards the kitchen.

Dean was laughing as he coloured in a cartoon dog, "Jiffy," he repeated and began laughing again.

The waitress returned with two plates and their drinks, cooing at Dean one last time before leaving to deal with other costumers.

They were halfway through their breakfast when Sam noticed the drunken man from last night had entered the diner, still staggering and obviously just as drunk, if not more. _What is this guy, an alcoholic?_ The man's bloodshot eyes that were full of fury landed on Sam, "We're not finished." He slurred as he approached the booth, giving Sam a forceful prod. Dean sent Sam a quizzical look before turning his attention back to the drunken man. Sam would have easily punched him, but instead he looked worriedly towards Castiel and Dean; the man followed Sam's gaze. "Should've guessed you were a queer; you're all like that."

Sam rolled his eyes, irritated by both the man's ignorant homophobia and the fact he was once again being mistaken as being in a relationship with Castiel. _How many times am I going to be mistaken as gay? _

"There's a kid right here, please, just back off man." Sam warned him.

The man looked down at Dean's confused and increasingly scared expression, having to confirm that there was in fact a child present. "Why the fuck should I care?" He slurred, gaining some inquisitive stares from other costumers.

"You're scaring him for Christ's sake."

"I'm not scared Sammy." Dean protested, his voice cracking when the drunken man leaned in closer.

"Is it weird to have two dads kid?" The man's breath almost knocked Dean out.

Dean pushed the man away with one tiny hand, "I dunno, is i' weir' to be such a dick?"

"Your kid has an attitude problem." The man said to Sam.

"Yeah, an' you have an alcohol one." Dean retorted.

"Dean, shut up." Sam said, sending a warning glance at his brother. The last thing they needed right now was for Dean to start provoking large, drunken men.

"You should listen to your daddy." The man said.

"Is that what you did? An' how's tha' workin' ou' for ya?"

The man pulled away, knocking Dean's food off of the table and onto Dean's lap. "Sewiously dude?" Dean sighed as he brushed his breakfast off of his jeans, throwing a piece of bacon at the man as revenge.

"I should…" The man reached out a hand to grab Dean when the bacon hit him square in the face. Sam was pleased to see that despite his age regression Dean still had impeccable aim, it showed his brother- the real Dean- was still there. Castiel placed his arm around Dean protectively and grabbed the man's wrist with his other hand, twisting it until the man fell to his knees, unable to withstand the pain any longer.

"I would advise you not to." The angel spoke in a tone neither brother had heard before.

A male waiter rushed over, "What's going on?" He asked in a frantic voice.

"These freaks started attacking me." The drunken man said as he stood up once Castiel eased his grip.

"Maybe you should leave Ted. You're looking a little worse for wear." The waiter insisted as he escorted the drunken man out of the diner, the entire time the drunken man directed death glares at the brothers' booth.

"I'm starting to understand how you piss people off." Sam said, looking towards Dean who was shrugging off Castiel's shielding grip.

The waitress who had been serving them shuffled forward towards them, "Are you all okay?" she asked, looking down at Dean since he was the one who was the most vulnerable.

"Yeah, we're fine." Sam said reassuringly. "We'll just get the bill."

"Of course," She said as she hurried away. Dean continued to pat his now sticky clothing while the waitress returned with the cheque and a lollipop for Dean; Sam noticed the price had been reduced by over 20%. She gave them one final wave as they left the diner, Dean mumbling about his ruined clothes all the way to the impala.

Sam lifted him into the car, placing him onto the backseat, "We're going to have to change your clothes." Sam said.

"Well duh, I stink of owanges and I'm soaked." Dean complained as he pulled of his jeans. "This was my las' clean ou'fi' though." Dean pointed out, eyes going wide with apprehension.

"Don't worry. There's a shop over there, I'll run in and get you something." Sam said, his joints popping back into place as he straightened up.

"Don' ge' me anythin' too stupid; I know your sense of fashion." Dean said with a mocking smile.

"Okay, just put your jeans back on for now." Sam said.

"No, dude they're gwoss."

"You're going to freeze in this weather if you don't." Sam said.

"He can use my coat." Castiel offered taking off his trench coat, he was worried about Dean's earlier threats and did not want to see if Dean would actually stay true to them; even though he was only four, Castiel knew Dean still held a lot of potential to cause trouble.

The oversized coat hung off Dean like a blanket, Sam wrapped him up like a burrito, earning an exasperated sigh from Dean.

"Are you warm enough?" Sam checked.

"Toas'y." Dean replied, "Now go ge' me some clothes so we can ge' goin' an' I can take this coa' off." Dean dictated, closing the car door to barricade himself from the cold air.

Sam turned to Castiel, "Thanks for that Cas, I'm going to check out as well after I get Dean some clothes."

"I'll stay here and watch Dean." Castiel said.

"I thought you'd say that. Right, I'll be back in a minute." Sam walked towards the small souvenir store near the motel.

Dean crawled forward to sit in the front seat, turning on the radio and flicking through the stations until he found one playing classic rock. He sat bobbing his head along to Black Sabbath, turning it down when he heard Sam's cell phone ring.

"Hello," he answered.

"Dean, is that you?" Bobby asked, "Is Sam there?"

"No, Sam's jus' gone into the store." Dean said, feeling rather downhearted that Bobby had asked for Sam instead of him.

"And left you in the car by yourself?" He asked.

"Yeah," Dean was irritated by Bobby's concern. "I'm fine though."

"Listen to me son, I don't care how many times you tell me you're fine, remember I knew you when you were a kid, I know when you're not alright." Bobby said, his voice less harsh than it usually was when he usually reprimanded either brother. Dean swallowed the lump in his throat; it must have been audible since Bobby asked, "Dean?"

"Yeah, sowwy Bobby. I's jus' evewyone's twea'in' me like some idio' an' Sam won' le' me do anythin' an' I can' even dwive my own car an', an'…" Dean had to stop in order to breathe, almost hyperventilating from the mix of frustration and oncoming tears.

"I understand; I'll talk to that idjit brother of yours for ya, see what I can do." Bobby said.

"Thanks Bobby." Dean replied, wiping his eyes so he didn't cry.

"I called to say that I talked to some of my contacts; since this de-aging malarkey has only happened once before there isn't much information about it. But, one hunter was able to translate those books we found at the witch's- or whatever she was- lair."

"How weliable is this hun'er?" Dean inquired.

"Honestly, he's an idjit and I'm surprised he's not dead yet; but he's good at this kind of stuff and we can trust him." Bobby assured him.

"What did he say?" Dean asked.

"The books were full of stories about the Norse gods, specifically that Idunn one you're tracking. Apparently the last time she pulled this trick was in the 1700's; some German army had been planning on invading a small village where she had been living. The morning before the attack, the entire squadron had been reduced to toddlers."

"Wow," Dean was speechless for a moment, "Did it say if they were changed back?"

"Well, the other generals went to the village to see what the disturbance had been, when they found all the soldiers as kids they thought it was some kind of witchcraft and tried to find Idunn. Guess they wanted her as some kind of weapon, but she was long gone."

"So they were never turned back?" Dean asked, his stomach aching with anxiety.

"Nope."

"Damn i'." Dean sighed, he saw Sam approach the car, "Go'a go Bobby, see ya soon."

"Yeah, take care Dean and tell Sam to call when he gets the chance." Bobby said as Dean hung up. Sam opened the door, a confused look on his face.

"Who were you talking to?"

"Bobby, he had some info on those books you found." Dean explained, accepting the bag Sam handed to him and climbing into the backseat, Castiel had gotten into his seat when Sam had returned. Dean pulled out the top, his brow knitted. "Wha's this?" He asked holding up the rainbow striped t-shirt.

"It's a t-shirt."

"I' says 'S is for silly'" Dean said.

"That's why I got you those." Sam said pointing to the bag. Dean pulled out the second item, denim dungarees.

"I sai' nothin' stupid." Dean almost yelled.

"Well, that was all they had, unless you want them in pink with 'P is for princess' brandished across your chest." Dean sighed as Castiel helped him into his new clothes, a look of utter distaste on his face. "Oh, come on dude, you look great."

"Well, a' leas' I don' look as goofy as you." He grinned as Sam pulled out of the parking lot. _Great, 10 more hours of this_, Sam thought to himself.

* * *

AN: Here's the next chapter, I hope you enjoy this one and thank you for all your kind reviews and responses. This chapter's special to me because I wrote the whole homophobia part after an encounter I had this week with my girlfriend on the train with a group of drunk men, even though they were huge dicks and it was horrible, it gave me some bittersweet inspiration for my story and I found i way to vent my emotions. Also the hunter who translated the books was Garth, I worked him in after some requests for him to be in it (I know it's not much but it was the only way I could work him in) I hope you enjoy this chapter and I will post the next one soon, hopefully. Enjoy!


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

It turned out that travelling during the day was even more troublesome than travelling at night had been. Now that Dean wasn't verging on unconsciousness and was wide awake, he was a four year old ball of energy that would not sit still for longer than 10 minutes.

Sam bit down hard on his tongue, the pain acting as a much needed distraction from the unbearable sound of his brother's cranky grievances about various things; he nearly drew blood when Dean began flinging a selection of toys at Sam's head and Sam almost bit through his tongue when Dean threw a tantrum because Sam confiscated his toy crossbow after Castiel took a rubber arrow to the eye, although the angel barely noticed the attack (the punishment was more about principles than anything else). Then there was the kicking, or the attempted kicking of Sam's chair. It was mainly Dean stretching his leg out as far as he could and then whinging when he couldn't reach. Altogether, it was a complete and utter nightmare.

If Sam had thought it Dean was a bad travelling companion when he was an adult, he certainly didn't now and missed the journeys when the only annoyance he would have was when Dean played his music too loudly.

"Dean, will you please shut up?" Sam begged after over an hour of Dean's torturous and relentless complaining.

Dean scowled, "I'm sowwy," He said, sarCasm lacing his otherwise innocent words, "Bu' if you haven' noticed i's pwetty borwing back here." Dean huffed, crossing his arms over his chest, and then quickly unravelling them when prickles of pain shot up his arm.

"You're not getting your crossbow back." Sam reproached, grimacing at the memory of the look he'd received from the oh-too-perfect family when he was forced to wrestle with Dean until the now younger Winchester surrendered and let go of the plastic handle. Castiel had only made it worse when he explained Dean had shot him in the eye because of his excessive boredom.

"Fine, bu' tha' doesn' mean i's any less borwin'." Dean stated as he stared out at the multi-coloured blur passing cars.

"Do you want to play eye spy or something then?" Sam asked, almost criminally confident that his brother would refuse. Ever since he could remember, Dean had hated those types of car games, much preferring to sit and listen to classic rock (which was classic even in those days).

"Like hell I do," Dean mumbled, scolding himself for actually considering to take Sam up on his offer.

"Well, what do you want then? We can't go to a park and you've got enough toys so I don't know what more you could want." Sam struggled to keep his voice levelled until conclusively cutting himself off, certain that if he continued he would end up having some sort of breakdown; he was finding it more and more difficult to cope with his now little, bratty brother.

Dean tucked his chin in close to his chest, feeling downright ashamed of himself. It was like reliving his passably miserable childhood, being scolded whenever he claimed he was bored or wasn't enjoying himself; he thought he had taught himself not to complain anymore and was ireful with himself for forgetting no to do so.

He looked at the opened duffel bag situated to his right, his eyes running over all the toys he had briefly played with before becoming bored and dismissed them. Dean pondered how to answer Sam's question, wondering what he did actually want, to be honest he wasn't sure himself so had no idea why he expected Sam to come up with a strategy to distract his progressively more child-like mind. He looked around the interior of the car, hoping to find some possible inspiration, feeling uninspired, however slightly amused at the sight of Castiel's confused expression as he held the Iron Man action figure inches from his face examining the unknown and apparently baffling object.

Dean finally responded to Sam's question by shrugging and admitting, "I dunno wha' I wanna do, I'm jus' bored."

"Well, why don't you read over the info I got on Idunn; familiarise yourself on any information that could be considered vital." Sam suggested, handing back the pile of scribbled notes, pictures and various documents that were on the seat beside him.

"Fine," Dean snatched the papers out of Sam's hand, deciding that this tedious task was the least mind-numbingly boring out of his other options. "But if there's anythin' edi-cational, I'm givin' up." Sam smiled, partly because he knew how accurate that probably was, but also because it sounded like Dean, the real Dean and not the frustrating four year old he'd been trapped with for the past couple of hours (well, apart from the mispronunciation of 'educational', but still.)

Dean flipped through the pages, squinting at the unrecognisable squiggles and lines. He knew Sam' handwriting wasn't great, but had it always been that bad?

"Dude, why's this all in Japanese or somethin'? You know I don' speak i', I didn' think you di' either. You been ge'in' lessons fwom bobby, geek boy?" Dean asked, somewhat angry that his brother had been so inconsiderate.

Sam stared at Dean in the reflection of the rear-view mirror, worried his brother had gone entirely mad. "What are you talking about?"

"All your damn notes are weir' lookin' squiggles." Dean handed over the papers to Castiel who held his hand out expectantly, wanting to inspect them. Both brothers keenly watched as the angel reviewed the questioned literature.

"This appears to be plain English, un-neat handwriting and possibly questionable use of punctuation, but definitely English." The Winchesters continued to silently watch Castiel for a couple more minutes while the angel finished reading the notes, Sam raising an eyebrow at the insult of his grammar and Dean feeling completely confounded.

He shook his head objecting, "Tha's not English, I know English an' tha's not i'." He insisted, staring up at Cas and his brother. "I know English," He repeated as he urged himself to breath slowly and remain composed.

"Dean, do you remember how to read?" Sam asked incredulously.

"Of course I do," Dean quipped a little too quickly.

Sam pulled out a book from his bag, handing it back to Castiel since he had to concentrate on the road. "Open it at a page and let Dean read a paragraph."

Dean rolled his eyes, "This is widiculous." He muttered, leaning to the side so he could view the book more easily. "Um," He squinted again at the squiggles that cluttered the page, unable to piece together any sentences or even words. Sam and Cas waited in anticipation, watching the scene intently as Dean mused over the page, huffing in exasperation when he failed to complete the set task. "This is dumb." He finally gave up, sinking back into his seat as far as he possibly could, wanting to sink right through the leather and into oblivion.

Sam turned his full attention back to the road feeling concerned and peculiarly panic-stricken by what was just revealed. He searched his mind for other ways to test his latest hypothesis.

"How do you start a car?" He asked causing Dean to rouse in his seat.

"Wha'?" Dean asked caught off-guard by the apparent unrelated question.

"How do you start a car?" Sam repeated.

"By stickin' the keys in'a ignition. Wha' kin'a stupid ass question is tha' anyway?" Dean asked, his emotions morphing into anger, at least anger was better the consuming embarrassment he was formerly experiencing.

"I mean, how do you put it in first gear? Or start driving? You know, the basics." Sam's eyes remained on the road although his mind drifted to what his brother's answer could possibly mean. Dean was appreciative of this since it meant Sam couldn't see his flustered reaction.

"Um, well, firs' you go'a ge' your keys an' you, um, you…"

"Yeah, you said that bit." Sam reminded him, "How do you make a U-turn?" He asked, changing the question another time.

Dean searched his mind for the instructions of the action he had performed countless times; but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't seem to access that information. Just like he couldn't remember what beer tasted like or even how babies are made. "I-I," He struggled not to cry, "I dunno." He admitted.

Sam nodded, his expression thoughtful but somehow blank and almost uninterested, attempting to disguise his actual feeling of dread and fear of the situation. The silence that followed was uncomfortable and suffocating, the oxygen becoming harder to obtain with every second that passed. Dean had curled up and turned away from Castiel's inquisitive stare, feeling self-conscious and embarrassed by the angel's silent assessment.

"It's okay Dean." Sam spoke when the agonizing silence became unbearable, unsure what else he could say to comfort and reassure his brother.

Dean sniffed, unable to verbally respond, not trusting his voice to remain calm and not crack with emotion. _Stupid kid emotions_.

After half an hour filled only by the quiet hum of the radio, Dean began to feel restless. Something was up but he couldn't place his finger on it; then it hit him like 3 hundred tons of bricks. "Sammy, pull over! I need'a pee!" He squealed, crossing his legs and tensing all his muscles.

"What?" Sam wasn't able to understand the hurried screeches of his worked up brother.

"I weally need'a pee" Dean clutched his stomach; there was no way he was peeing himself, especially not in the impala. "You be'er pull over wigh' now!" Dean demanded. _Damn tiny kid body and bladder._

"Fine, fine," Sam muttered pulling into a gas station, becoming relatively flustered himself.

Before the car even came to a complete stop, Dean had removed his seatbelt, flung the impala's door open and ran to the bathroom at the side of the small store. Sam followed in pursuit, tapping on the closed door when he reached it.

"You okay in there?" He asked through the wooden green door.

There was no reply. Sam waited another minute before tapping again. "Dean?" Once again, Sam was met with silence. Sam felt his pulse rising; what if something had happened to Dean, again? "Dean!" He yelled almost kicking the door off of its hinges; people were beginning to stare but Sam barely noticed them, his mind was fixed on his brother's safety, or possible lack of. There was a flushing sound and then the door flew open revealing a muddled looking Dean.

"Dude, wha' are you doin'?" Dean's head dipped, his eyes almost rolled back into his skull so he was able to address Sam.

"I, er, I thought…" Sam trailed off, embarrassed by his over-reaction. Dean grinned, finding it utterly hilarious.

"Yeah, well do you know how hard i' is to pee when someone's tryin' to bweak down the door?" Dean smirked, milking the chance to mock his brother.

Sam shook his head, releasing a relieved chuckle, and began to walk back to the car, Dean jogging behind to keep up with Sam's large strides. Sam paused in front of the store door, glancing at his watch to realise it was around lunchtime. "Come on, we'll grab something to eat from here." Sam said to Dean who was a little out of breath after his impromptu jog.

"Okay," he panted, hurrying through the glass door that Sam held open for him. Before following, Sam turned to the car, beckoning Cas to join them; the angel took a moment to understand what Sam's theatrical gestures meant, but once he did he climbed out of the car and strode towards the store.

Dean had found the candy aisle as soon as he had stepped into the store, eyes wide with craving for every piece of confectionary. "Dean, you can't have candy for lunch." Sam admonished, encouraging Dean to move away from the unhealthy section and more in the direction of the savoury food. But Dean had already found a bag of M&M's and clutched them tightly in his grubby fists.

"Pwees Sammy." Dean begged, each vowel hauled out for as long as possible.

Sam looked up at the ceiling, hoping that if he didn't see Dean's face he wouldn't fall victim to the astonishingly adorable expression. Unfortunately, the memory of Dean's pleading eyes was just as effective as the real thing, Sam even thought he'd emphasised how green Dean's eyes actually were in his mind. Cursing himself mentally, he released an involuntary "Fine." Dean cheered. "But only after you have something else to eat, something that isn't candy or pie."

"Yay! You're the bes' Sammy." Dean squealed, ignoring the second part of Sam's statement and only focusing on the part about him getting M&M's. He shoved the bag of candy into Sam's hand and ran down the aisle to find Cas; Sam then placed the bag into the basket he'd picked up along with some other things that he thought were more suitable for lunch.

Sam heard a high-pitched giggle. He turned around to see an attractive middle-aged woman shaking her head at him. "More like S is for spoilt, right?"

"Yeah, well they're only young once." Sam hated how sarcastic he was sometimes, but not right now; he just hoped Dean didn't hear his comment.

"Yeah, kids just have that way of getting whatever they want, my little sister was exactly the same, she still is I guess." The woman pushed back her blonde, curly hair; Sam noticed the hint of ginger that she must have tried to exonerate. Removing her hair from her face revealed light wrinkles on her forehead; Sam guessed she was in her mid to late forties, but was still incredibly beautiful and could have looked younger if Sam didn't stare so absorbedly. When she smiled Sam was able to see her perfect, pearly white teeth and the smile lines at either side of her mouth, there was just something about her that made it hard for Sam to quit staring like an idiot.

"Tell me about it," Sam coughed eventually, smiling at the woman.

"Back off you perv!" Sam heard Dean yelling from two aisles away, sprinting towards the epicentre of the commotion and abandoning his conversation with the woman (as well as any hopes of future interactions). He skidded to a halt to see a man curled up into a ball, cupping his vulnerable area and crying in pain. Sam looked towards Dean who was backing away from the man and towards Sam.

"Dean,"

"Sammy, tha' guy twied to give me candy." Dean held onto his brother's leg for protection, trying to hide wholly from the gathering crowd.

"What's going on?" A woman with a name tag asked as she evaluated the situation.

"He's a perv!" Dean pointed at the man on the floor. "you shoul' ban him fwom the store."

"What? He works here." She informed them as she helped the man up off of the floor. "My god, Joe are you ok?" she asked when the man winced from the movement.

"That kid just punched me in the balls, like _really_ hard." He emphasised the last part, obviously embarrassed to be taken down by a toddler. Sam tilted his head in admiration, considerably impressed his brother could still do something like that, the kid was like 2 and a half feet tall.

"He said you tried to give him candy." Sam offered as an explanation.

"That's my job; I give out taster products to customers." The man explained as if Sam was the same age as Dean looked.

"Oh," both Winchesters breathed simultaneously as they stared down at their feet.

"Well, maybe you shouldn' be so cweepy when you do i'." Dean suggested like it would make the situation any better.

"He has a point." Castiel commented.

The two employees stared, dumbfounded by the unlikely trio who all seemed extremely uncomfortable. "We're just going to check out now." Sam said, grabbing a few more items blindly to fill the near empty basket. The female employee nodded in agreement, aspiring to get them as far away from the store as possible.

"Right, of course." She turned and hurried towards the checkout till, Sam at her heels and Dean at his as Sam dragged him along behind him.

Castiel continued staring at the unfortunate male employee who was unlucky enough to encounter Dean. Castiel was still trying to determine whether this man was a threat or not. When the man cowered away, Cas finally looked away, striding to keep up with the Winchesters as they returned to the impala, eager to leave the whole ordeal behind them.

* * *

She watched intently from her car as the trio left the store and piled into the slick, black car; she held the cell phone to her ear as she called the only number on it.

"I've tracked down the vehicle and I'm certain it's them." The woman paused for a moment letting the words sink in at the other end of the phone.

"Is it true?" The equally high, but sweeter, voice on the other end asked.

"Yes, the elder one has been regressed to the age of a toddler. I'm almost positive that _she's_ involved." Her words bled disdain and resentment.

"Did you engage?" The other voice asked with great distrust.

"Yes, but only briefly." She responded feeling rather guilty. "With the younger one, he didn't suspect anything though."

There was a pause and an exasperated sigh before the other voice spoke again. "Do not make yourself known again, stay in the shadows and observe for now; we don't want them to become suspicious or for her to run like she did last time. This is our last chance." She paused again. "Have you determined the volume of her power yet?"

"He appears to retain his memories but it's becoming more strenuous, I sensed it." It was her turn to pause, unsure whether she should voice her opinion, finally deciding that she should. "It will be gone soon and we would have lost our final bargaining chip. If we can abstract it now…"

"No." The other voice responded flatly, "You know how she would respond."

"Exactly, if we could…"

"No. we wouldn't know how to abstract it anyway."

"Fine, but are you sure not intervening is the wisest of options? You know that she would do anything to protect it. We could use him to blackmail her." The strawberry-blonde asked, moving her hair out of her face.

"I suppose you have a valid point. Okay, you have the authority to intervene; but only if it is completely necessary and there are no alternative options. Do you understand, Sigyn?" Her voice was that of a drill sergeant.

A malicious grin crossed the woman's face as she followed the black car down the highway, "Of course mother, I will not touch either Winchester unless it is entirely necessary."

* * *

AN: Thank you for all your reviews for the last chapter and I hope you all enjoy this one. I really love all the Norse mythology I've been researching (and by researching I mean reading Thor comics) and hopefully you all enjoy it too. The next chapter should be up soon hopefully as my school is closed for a couple of days so I have loads of time to write, but until next time, enjoy!


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Dean was asleep, draped across the backseat, his upper body resting on Castiel's legs and Zeppelin resting on his own small chest. His short arms were wrapped around the teddy, one fist clutching at its brown fur, the other digging into Castiel's shirt. Castiel held his arm raised awkwardly in mid-air, careful not to disrupt the sleeping infant. It had taken himself and Sam several hours to convince the moody, yet determined, toddler to actually go to sleep; he couldn't imagine anything worse than the wrath of both tired Winchesters, granted one barely reached his knee but the other brother made up for that height disadvantage, and Castiel wouldn't underestimate Dean's capabilities either, or the untiring grudge he could hold. Castiel's trench coat had been taken from him and was being used as a make-shift blanket, which had mostly been kicked off while Dean slept; it turns out that four year old Dean moved _a lot_ while he slept.

Sam had to quickly swerve so he wouldn't hit a car in front of them. He spared one final glance into the backseat- which was the reason he'd almost crashed the car in the first place, that and the lack of sleep- to ensure the close encounter had not woken Dean. Luckily his brother seemed to have slept through the close encounter- Sam would have known instantly if Dean had woken up, mainly because he would currently be ranting about Sam endangering his baby and Sam being told he was now banned from driving the impala, _forever_- so Sam returned his attention to the road, adjusting his eyes to the dim orange glow of the streetlights and the occasional flash of other cars headlights that were becoming less frequent as the hours wore on.

After what felt like an eternity, Sam checked the time on his watch, sighing when he read that it was nearly 2 am. He had decided to carry on driving until they'd reached Florida, wanting the whole dilemma to be resolved as soon as possible. He looked down at the map that was laid out on the passenger's seat and located their general position, realising there was about another hour of driving before they hit Florida. Sam took another sip of the energy drink he'd accidently bought at the store- he now suspected this to be some form of divine intervention- and pushed on through the never-ending darkness that was the I-95.

When they had just under half an hour to go, Sam heard a discomforting sound emanate from somewhere behind him. He'd turned around just in time to see Dean flailing his arms before jerkily sitting up and screaming bloody murder. He heaved himself away from Castiel, kicking Castiel's hand when he had reached out to try to calm Dean down, and cowered in a ball on his seat. Dean soon stopped screaming but began to whimper like an injured puppy instead, eyes squeezed shut so tightly Sam worried Dean would pop a blood vessel. Dean tightened his hold on Zeppelin as if the teddy was a life raft keeping him afloat in the freezing ocean.

Sam pulled over at the side of the deserted road and climbed out of the car, crouching down at Dean's side when he opened the car door Dean had been resting on. Dean flinched away at the soft creak of the metal as the door opened, closing his eyes tighter and almost inaudibly humming a few bars of an unrecognisable tune.

"Dean, what's wrong?" Sam asked, backing away slightly after Dean had screamed when Sam had tried to rest a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Dean," Sam repeated a little more frantic after Dean continued to hum, a little louder now and had also started rocking. "What's wrong with him?" Sam asked Castiel after he received no sign of cooperation from Dean; Sam was tired, exasperated and just wanted this whole week to be over with. The last thing he needed was a screaming four year old at three o'clock in the morning on the side of the highway; although he was grateful it was this rather than during the busy day time hours in which he would have received disgusted and judgemental looks from onlookers yet again.

"I'm not sure; I think he had another nightmare but I haven't seen this kind of reaction before now, in fact I have never seen this sort of behaviour from Dean before now." Castiel studied Dean, looking concerned, or as concerned as an outwardly emotionless angel can be.

"Dean!" Sam shook Dean's shoulder, hoping to snap his brother out of whatever mental breakdown he was having. Dean continued to hum even louder and Sam noticed a mild resemblance to Metallica. "Come on Dean, just snap out of it!" Sam nearly yelled as he tugged a little too forcefully at Dean's shoulder.

Tears started to escape from Dean's closed eyes as a strangled yelp escaped his mouth, "Daddy!"

Sam's eyes widened as he watched Dean cry more violently, mumbling undistinguished words into Zeppelin's head, Sam sporadically recognised the word "daddy" being repeated. The deep breath he inhaled stung Sam's lungs, the worry and terror that inhabited him still remained once the physical pain had left. _Does Dean not remember?_ This thought was quickly followed by another, _damn it!_

He cursed himself for being impatient and reckless, probably making the situation considerably worse than it had already been. He may have had a terrified and confused four year old on his hands but now he had a terrified and confused four year old who thought Sam wanted to hurt him and who was now asking for his father who had been dead for the past three years.

"Does he… does he think he's…" Sam couldn't finish his sentence, using all the power he could muster to keep breathing steadily and not have a breakdown himself.

Thankfully Castiel seemed to anticipate his question and was able to answer without Sam having to complete it, "I think he is momentarily disorientated due to the intensity and calibre of his nightmare. His emotional state seems to be powering his confusion and increasing the effects of the de-aging process meaning his mind is currently in the state it would've been when he was four years old." Sam nodded although he couldn't comprehend it fully; his brother no longer remembered anything. Dean was now more of a stranger to Sam than he had ever been, and Sam (or the adult Sam) was _literally_ a stranger to Dean.

Sam couldn't do anything, even if he knew how to deal with all of this he was frozen with anxiety and felt completely helpless; he barely noticed Castiel press two fingers against Dean's forehead. It wasn't until Dean fell forward limply did Sam react at all.

"What did you do?" It seemed that all Sam was doing right now was asking questions.

"I helped him sleep, hopefully if he can avoid having any further nightmares, the sleep will decrease the extent of his emotions and he will regain some control of his mind, preferably the part that holds his memories." Castiel explained as he moved Dean into a more comfortable position, like a ventriloquist would do with a dummy. "I did warn you that this could be a possibility Sam." Castiel reminded him, concluding any further inquiries Sam could have.

Sam nodded sorrowfully, slowly standing up, closing the car door that he had been leaning on for support, taking a few more deep breaths and returning to the driver's seat, unable to respond to Castiel in his current state. Although he didn't think the angel would be expecting Sam to respond, or be disappointed when he showed no correspondence.

Turning the key in the ignition, he watched as Dean calmed at the sound of the impala's low rumble, the soft hum of the tires against the road acting as a reassuring memory for both brothers as Sam finished their drive.

Sam checked them into a cheap motel when they reached Jacksonville, Florida, leaving Castiel in the car with Dean while he did so. Castiel carried the still sleeping Dean into the hired room and placed him on the bed while Sam carried the one bag, collapsing on his own bed and instantly falling asleep. He would contact Gabriel in the morning; hopefully Dean will have his memories back by then, otherwise this would be a great deal harder than it already was.

* * *

Sam wasn't sure whether he was relieved or not when he woke up at 9 am to see that Dean was still asleep, he hadn't moved since he had been laid down on the bed last night, not one inch. His small body was still curled in on itself, his face tucked behind his knees meaning his face, and therefore expressions, were hidden from sight and Zeppelin still held in a death grip.

"Has he woken up?" Sam asked in a hushed whisper to Castiel who was sat at the small table by the barely transparent window.

Castiel shook his head in reply, also cautious not to wake Dean up.

Dean's breathing had a slow, steady rhythm to it that eased Sam's nerves somewhat. He was still worried though, since Dean was still asleep, it meant he had slept for over 12 hours (not including the brief disturbance that only lasted no longer than 5 minutes); although he was pleased to see that Dean was able to sleep without the recently frequent and disrupting nightmares he had been experiencing.

After around 10 minutes of examining Dean's sleeping form, and clearing his own mind of concern, Sam decided to wake him up. He was desperate to find out whether his brother remembered him or not; the thought of Dean not remembering anything was almost too much for Sam to handle and he had to put himself out of his misery. He shook Dean's shoulder, on his good arm, gently until he saw the sparkling green eyes open. Sam felt a lump in his throat when he saw confusion occupy those bright eyes; they flickered to take in all aspects of their surroundings until finally resting on Sam, wide and innocent.

"When did we check in'o a mo'el woom?" Dean asked as he rubbed the confusion out of his eyes, pulling at the dungarees he still had on.

Sam released a sigh of relief; a manic smile occupied the majority of his face as he watched Dean sit up. He shared a quick glance with Castiel, who also looked relieved, or at least Sam thought he did.

"Why are you so happy? Di' I sleep thwough chwistmas again?" Dean asked, slouching a few feet backwards on the bed, away from his suddenly crazy brother.

"No, it's nothing." Sam dismissed, trying to wipe the ecstatic grin off of his face, settling on a small, reassuring smile.

"Okay," Dean said, less than convinced by Sam's answer. "So, are we in Flowida?"

"Yeah, Jacksonville; arrived late last night." Sam explained, following Dean to the bathroom and leaning on the doors frame as Dean jumped up to reach the sink.

"Have you called Gabwiel ye'?" Dean asked, shoving the child size toothbrush into his mouth.

"Not yet, I'll get Cas to do it now." Both Winchesters looked to Castiel who was sat at the small table; the angel stood up, with a sigh, and within the minute Gabriel had appeared in the room.

"Wow, you guys actually made it here. I was certain one of you idiots were going to get yourselves killed, or murder each other; I had bets on both."

Dean removed the tooth brush from his mouth so he was able to talk properly, or better than he would've been able to. "Yeah, we're here. Now where's this god fwiend of yours?"

"Always so impatient, not even a thank you for keeping Zachariah and his squad off your backs; which wasn't easy, let me tell you that. They're currently chasing a Labrador across Texas." Both Winchesters looked at Gabriel, slightly confused by what he had said. "Fine." With a snap of his fingers, Dean, Sam and Castiel found themselves in a very bright and busy diner, hurrying over to a table that they saw Gabriel was sat at, a 6 inch stack of pancakes in front of him.

"Wha' are we doin' here?" Dean asked as he climbed into the chair opposite Gabriel, Sam sitting next to him and Cas sitting next to Gabriel. Gabriel smiled wickedly at the angry four year old, almost laughing at Dean's contorted expression. "Enough games, jus' tell us why the hell we're here." Dean demanded loudly, slamming a tiny fist on the table.

"Dean." Sam admonished after receiving disapproving looks from individuals in the diner. "You're going to draw attention to us."

"Oh wigh', a 6'4 sasquatch, a guy in a twench coa' and a fully gwown adul' ea'ing abou' 20 pancakes all si'ing together at a table and I'm the one who's goin' to dwaw attention…" Dean crossed his arms and leaned back in frustration.

Gabriel laughed at Dean's outburst; Sam was going to scold Dean again but thought it wiser not to, remembering that if his brother got too emotional, he could forget everything again. That could not happen, especially in such a busy environment.

"Can we get back to what we're doing here?" Sam asked. "Where is here anyway?"

"Disney World." Gabriel answered absently, picking at the top pancake with his fork.

"Disney World?" Sam and Dean asked simultaneously.

"Yeah, well I found Idunn." Gabriel explained.

"Wai', you're sayin' an ancien' goddess has been hauled up a' a theme park for kids?" Dean asked sceptically.

"It's pretty smart; I mean who would've guessed she'd be at Disney World?" Gabriel said.

"Is she here now, like in the diner?" Sam asked looking around for anyone acting suspiciously.

"No, if she was she would've ditched by now anyway. That's why we came here first, she works in the store across the road; we're going to corner her." Gabriel said as he took a bite of his pancake before shoving the plate away from himself.

"We're going to corner her?" Sam repeated to make sure he hadn't heard it incorrectly. "Is that, you know, safe? Cornering a god?"

"Of course not," Gabriel laughed standing up from the table and walking to the door, Sam, Dean and Cas sharing confused looks before following him.

* * *

AN: I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and as always your reviews are highly valued and appreciated. This was originally two chapters but they seemed too short for me so I made them into one so that's the reason it sort of stops then starts again. I will try to update it soon but for now enjoy!


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

"Hol' up, do we even have a plan?" Dean asked as they exited the diner, kneading his left temple with the palm of his hand. Sam gave him a once over, looking for any other signs of distress or discomfort caused by the reoccurring ailment but none seemed apparent.

"Do you ever have a plan?" Gabriel retorted, "Usually you two chuckleheads just mindlessly barge in and hope for the best. And no offense or anything, but I've seen your plans when you do come up with them and trust me we're better off with no plan." Dean glared at him through blurred vision, barely able to distinguish the archangel from the other surroundings; he still wasn't sure whether he was talking to Gabriel or a neighbouring lamppost. "In you go," Gabriel ushered them towards the old fashioned toy store opposite the diner.

"What about you?" Sam asked, suspicious of Gabriel's actions. He grabbed Dean's arm, preventing him from wandering into the store alone before he'd received an adequate answer from Gabriel.

"It's warded against me." Gabriel heaved feeling defeated. "I can't pass through that door even if I wanted to, that's why I'm sending in the b-team."

Sam stared the other man down, scrutinizing every inch of Gabriel's body language and facial expression, hoping to discover how trustworthy the renowned trickster was. Dean fussed in his grip, squirming to be set free, he had very little patience left and being treated like a dumb kid was not helping matters, not to mention that it felt as if someone was learning to play the drums inside his head, badly at that. It was not until Castiel spoke that Sam's suspicions were depleted. "Gabriel is telling the truth Sam; it is warded against all angels as well as most Norse and Pagan gods." He spoke staring beyond Sam and the store.

"So we're going in alone?" Sam verified, "Without back-up?"

"Oh come on," Gabriel drawled, "You'll be fine. It's not like you need us to hold your hand." he stared at Dean for a moment who continued to struggle in Sam's protective grip. "Well, at least one of you doesn't."

Dean shot daggers at the blurry lamp-post figure, probably missing the intended target by miles. He escaped Sam's grip and marched forward with as much authority as a four year old could project, Sam following him through the old wooden door. As they evaluated the small, passé store, they heard a soft, metallic ding as the door closed behind them, signalling that they were closed in with the infamous goddess.

"Hello there, I'll be with you in one moment." A chirpy English accent called out from seemingly nowhere, originating from somewhere behind the counter. Suddenly a lightly freckled face appeared from behind said counter, a hand on the surface to support the woman's weight; well, Sam wasn't sure if woman was the correct term to use, perhaps girl, child, maybe adolescent. Whatever she was classed as Sam would've been surprised if she'd told him she could legally drink. Her fair blonde hair looked almost yellow in the light, tied in a long, messy plait with a purple beanie covering the top of her head. The dress that she wore looked like it belonged in the forties, purple like her hat with a pattern of tiny yellow and grey flowers distributed across it with brown ankle boots to top the look off, the outfit was incredibly youthful like all other aspects of this girl, child maybe adolescent.

Standing at full height, which wasn't that tall, she was able to see the Winchesters entirely, eyes flickering over both in turn, lingering over Dean who was now clutching his head with both hands; he was so distracted he showed no signs of recognition towards the dog that came trotting out also from behind the counter. The Labrador puppy, that was still considerably large, shared the same bright blonde her as its owner. Sam knew if Dean was in his complete mind-set right now he would've shown some sign of aversion towards the dog.

"My goodness, what a surprise," She said, despite her sincere, dazzling smile, the tone of her statement hinted towards sarcasm. "I mean honestly guys, you're both hunters right? And it takes you this long to track me down? I'm a little disappointed to tell the truth." She stroked the dog's head as she passed it, closing the safe distance between her and the Winchesters. She stood in front of them, looking up into Sam's eyes shining a slightly awkward grin. "It's nice to finally meet you," She shook his hand before crouching down to get a better look at Dean.

"Wow," She breathed, pulling aside the strap of the dungarees, releasing a small laugh after reading the statement written on the t-shirt. She turned Dean around with her arms, he didn't protest since he was still too distracted by the pain in his head. She shot up, turning to face the dog again. "Do you think this is how Van Gogh feels after witnessing one of his masterpieces? Or Lady Gaga?" She didn't seem to be addressing anyone in particular, besides possibly the dog.

Dean released a gasp of pain, falling into Sam's leg, unable to withstand the pain any longer. "Oh god," The girl exclaimed. She rushed forward bending down again to support Dean in her arms before Sam could. She lifted him up and positioned him on her hip expertly, stroking a hand delicately across his forehead as she scurried behind the counter to find something. "Don't worry." She called out to Sam who was doing exactly that. "This happens all the time with Winston." She said as she rooted through a pile of what appeared to be junk.

"Aha!" she declared when she found a necklace with a small golden charm of what looked like an apple, a charm that matched the one herself and the dog both wore. She placed it over Dean's head and stood back a bit while Dean recovered. "I seem to send off these vibes to people around me who have experienced the effects of the age regression. I realised this when Winston didn't age, he's nearly 100 years old, you know." She patted the dog's head again, more affectionately this time beaming at the barking dog. "That should keep away the headaches for now; I can't say the same for the memory loss though, everything seems to intensify around me. That's why a lot of my family didn't like having me around that much." She smiled awkwardly again, looking between Sam and Dean's worried expressions. Not realising both brothers were hiding the fact they were aware of this side-effect.

She pinched Dean's cheek lightly in an attempt to rid the distressing look, "It's only one of the many drawbacks of having this gig." She smiled pitifully at them. "Is something the matter?" both Winchesters had remained silent since entering the store (unless you count a pained cry Dean had emitted involuntarily) both looking as dazed as the other.

"You're Idunn?" Dean finally asked, fiddling with the newly acquired accessory.

"Yes, and you're Sam and Dean Winchester. Like I said, it's a pleasure to meet you both. I've heard a lot about you. Most of it negative but you can't believe all the rumours you hear, right?" Her expression quickly changed to intrigued, "Are you two really trying to stop the apocalypse? Hey, props to you if you are, someone needs to teach a lesson to those obnoxious angels. It's like they think they run the universe, forget some of us been around just as long as they have."

"wai', so you're, you know, not twyin' to kill us or anythin'?" Dean asked, sitting cross-legged on the counter top.

Idunn laughed, "Kill you, I've been trying to keep your asses safe. Who'd you think got rid of that pesky demon who wouldn't leave you alone? Or who helped Loki with distracting the angel squad?"

"That was you?" Sam asked.

"Don't seem so surprised. I mean, why on earth would I want you dead?" She sighed after a realisation, "You two have been spending too much time with my family. They seem to have that effect on people." She chewed her lip. "You know, you two aren't too popular among my family." She added. "Not many hunters are."

Sam felt a wave of panic pass over him, wanting to pull Dean away from the goddess, he just realised that a lot of her family members murdered by them, or people in the same line of business. "We're, eh," Sam stuttered. Was there even a polite way of saying, 'Sorry I murdered your aunt'?

"Hey, don't worry about it. I should be thanking you actually; I disliked most of them anyway. They're all stuck in their ways, hung up on their tradition; all the murdering and human sacrifices. You can just get so sick of it. Do you know what I mean? They had no one to blame but themselves." She spoke as if she was talking about something trivial and routine, although it all probably was for her. "What?" She asked Dean who was sat silently surveying her from his spot on the counter.

"You're jus' not weally wha' I was expec'in'." He stared up into Idunn's stunningly blue eyes.

She smiled fondly down at him, taking the comment as a compliment, which Sam supposed it was, kind of. "Why? What were you expecting?" She asked.

Dean shrugged, "Dunno, jus' Gabwiel said you were dangewous."

"Oh, he's just still mad from the last time." She interjected. Dean raised an inquisitive eyebrow, indicating her to elaborate. "Well, last time we saw each other I may have _accidently_," She emphasised, "Sort have shot him with a bow and arrow." Dean and Sam stared at her questioningly. "Then set a couple of bears after him and then shot him again, twice." She winced, ashamed of the act she had performed. "But hey, I overreacted a little; we've all done it before. You'd think after two centuries a guy would forgive you, obviously not."

Dean nodded to move along the conversation, although his face showed that he was shocked at what she said; she looked so kind and innocent. "So if you don' have anythin' agains'us why'd ya do this?" He asked, waving a hand over his body.

Idunn sighed, "Oh, trust me, I didn't. I haven't done anything like this in a while; it's such a hassle and causes me more trouble than it's worth. It's so much easier not to. I mean there's the whole-"

"Wait, if you didn't do this, then who did?" Sam interrupted, voice verging on panicky.

She rolled her eyes muttering to herself, "That's fine. It's not like the extremely difficult process matters at all." She shot a look at either Winchester, coughed to clear her throat, straightened up and then raised her voice to its normal volume. "Like I was saying, I didn't do this but someone did use the magic that I possess. There was this girl, a little weird if you ask me, like a crazy fan girl; one day out of the blue I hear this weird sound, suddenly my TV's on fire and I can hear this girl talking to me. I was pretty freaked out as you can imagine, that thing doesn't usually happen on your average Thursday afternoon. So she explained that she'd found an old book that had a spell to communicate with me. I was flattered at first, all the talking, I don't get to do that much, but soon she became obsessed and I got kind of bored. She was talking to me like every day, always about the same bloody things," She shook her head lightly, using hand gestures throughout her explanation. "Anyway, after a couple of months she said she wanted to try one of the other spells. I told her not to, told her most of them were dangerous and it would only end badly. I practically forbade her from doing so, but did she listen to the wise, eon old goddess?" Sam was beginning to understand, Dean still looked confused and was unsure what this had to do anything, his underdeveloped mind not piecing together the facts. "She cooked up a de-aging potion, she didn't know that was what it did at the time, her translations were a little off you see, and then she set her sights on a test subject. She had plans for her cat, but when you two stumbled into the middle of her experiment it seemed almost like fate to her. I guess it was just a case of wrong place, wrong time." She smiled, still trying to come across as friendly.

"What happened to her then? We found her dead a couple of days ago." Sam inquired, it was visible that Dean was not keeping up and still trying to process Idunn's story.

"That was in the fine print of the spell; like I said, her translations were off. In order for the spell to work it requires a human sacrifice; it was one of the reasons I begged her not to undergo it."

"So whenever you pull this stun' you kill an innocen' person?" Dean established.

"You have been spending _way_ too much time with my family." Idunn repeated, shaking her head again in disapproval. "That only happens when a human tries to perform the spell, it takes a certain degree of skill to do it correctly." She seemed almost proud of the fact she could perform the task correctly.

"Gwea' stowy, weally fascina'in'. Bu' can you turn me back now?"

Idunn shrugged, "I don't see why not; I don't know why you'd want to turn back, you're just so adorable." She cooed, pinching Dean's cheek again causing him to squirm away from the ticklish feel.

Sam was finally able to breath properly for the first time since Dean had been changed, relieved they'd found a solution, "Okay, le's do this." Dean said, sitting up straighter and edging towards the end of the counter.

"Well I can't just do it right now." She explained like it was first grade math. "I haven't got any of the ingredients, or equipment with me and I have to run my store anyway." She gestured to the empty aisles that seemed bare and naked.

"How can we get these ingredients then?" Sam asked, maintaining his composure whereas Dean almost broke down again, clutching his forehead and burying it in his knees.

"Sh-h, don't worry, you've got to stay calm." Idunn soothed the toddler, who was currently acting exactly like one. "I have all the ingredients, I just need someone to go pick them up, that's all."

Dean sniffed, rubbing his nose on the collar of his t-shirt, looking incredibly young in that one moment.

"Look, I'm sure Loki can round them up in no time. I'll tell him where they are and he can zap in and out." She said, handing Dean a tissue which he accepted hesitantly. "Where is Loki anyway? He's not really one for anonymity." She asked, turning to Sam for the answer.

"You have warding against him, and our friend." Sam explained, he had expected her to know this.

Idunn threw her hand to her forehead, hitting it with a light thud. "Of course, the angel and pagan proofing, I completely forgot." She walked swiftly back behind the counter, moving everything out of the way, including Dean who was still awfully quiet, so the entire wood surface was the revealed. Sam was now able to see the weird symbols carved into the counter top where the checkout machine had been. She pulled out a pocket knife and scratched away two of the carvings.

Before she had even returned the knife to her pocket, Gabriel and Castiel had appeared.

Castiel's eyes immediately averted to Dean, he had not felt comfortable letting his charge confront the goddess in such a vulnerable state and was relieved to see that both hunters were not harmed in any way.

"Idunn, long time now see." Gabriel smiled.

"Yeah, well you're the one who never bothered to call." She replied sarcastically, "Does anyone else know you're here?" Although on the surface she seemed polite she had a subtlety that said she could kill him in one swift movement.

"Just little old me, I haven't spoken with the rest of the family for quite some time." Idunn nodded.

"They seem to be burning a lot of bridges. Do you know if they're still angry?" Idunn asked with hopeful desperation. Sam noticed the sadness in her words, the kind that only came from disappointing your family, the kind he had been very familiar with all of his life.

Gabriel nodded, no words were needed to shatter Idunn's desire of having her family back.

"Well, let's get down to business then, shall we?" Idunn said with an unconvincing smile. She pulled a piece of lilac paper out of a notepad and scribbled down a list of instructions of what needed to be collected and where they could be found. "I need you to go and collect these, should be easy enough but a lot of them are warded against you, and angels." She added looking at Sam who understood her silent message.

"I'll go." Sam said, trying not to notice how Dean looked up at him with large, surprised eyes. "Cas, you stay here and make sure Dean's okay." The angel nodded in confirmation, he didn't really need to be told but was pleased to hear Sam voice what he was about to suggest.

"He'll be fine." Idunn reassured him, ruffling Dean's un-brushed hair to make it even messier, much to his displeasure.

"We'll be back soon." He promised, exchanging a single nod with Dean. Dean did not look up from his knees, just buried his head deeper.

Part of him, the part he was currently deeply ashamed of and would not tell anyone about, was relieved he was able to escape the store with only Gabriel; he needed time away from the seemingly bi-polar toddler. Sam worried Dean's mind was deteriorating again, that was how it had started the last time; obviously the news about the ingredients had hit him harder than Sam had expected.

_Yeah, I have to fix this_, Sam thought as he felt the familiar action of flying.

* * *

AN: Here's the new chapter, I hope you all enjoy it. I know Idunn is probably not what you expected but, hey ho. Like always, thank you for all your reviews and favourites, it's nice to know what you all think of it. I will try to update soon, but enjoy for now.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

There was silence for nearly a minute after Sam and Gabriel left. Dean kept his head buried in his knees for this time; once he had partially composed himself again, he raised his head to look around the store. He held out his arms, waiting to be helped down from his spot on the counter; Idunn volunteered for this job instantly since Castiel was confused by what Dean's gesture had meant.

"Are you okay now Dean?" She asked the sniffling toddler as she placed him on the floor. Dean nodded half-heartedly, still refusing to say anything. Idunn crouched down and ran a hand over his messy hair, brushing the long bangs out of his face making it impossible for him to hide any longer. "I know it's getting harder for you to control your emotions, you don't have to lie to us Dean; we won't tell Sam if you don't want us to. But you're just going to have to face reality, Dean," She ran a hand through his hair again when he swallowed back tears, "As much as I'd like to say it's all going to be fine, I can't promise you that. However, I can promise you that we will try our very best to fix this as long as you promise to be brave and stay positive. Okay?" Dean's bangs fell back over his face as he nodded. "Okay." Idunn said with a comforting smile.

"Now, I'm going to go get you some milk and cookies, I'll be back in a second." She chirped as she span round while standing up. A small smile appeared on Dean's face at the mention of cookies.

Castiel stepped forward gingerly, wanting to comfort Dean but unsure of what to say to his upset charge. Fighting Lucifer didn't seem so bad now that Castiel was faced with an emotional child; he would probably be more successful with handling their Lucifer problem than comforting Dean.

"Is there anything else you need Dean?" Castiel asked him while Idunn fumbled about in the kitchen at the back of the store. Dean shook his head, seeming more coherent than he had been moments before, although he still had not spoken since Castiel had arrived in the store.

"Righteo Deano, I wasn't sure whether you were an oatmeal or choc-chip kind of guy so I got you both." Idunn announced as she set a tray with a plate of cookies, two glasses of milk and a green Sippy cup on the counter top. She handed Dean the green cup and held out the plate, nodding towards it when Dean just stared at her with furrowed brows. Dean's hand moved quickly as he grabbed a chocolate chip cookie and shoved it in his mouth, becoming more tranquil while he ate the snack.

Idunn handed Castiel the glass of milk which he stared at for a moment before placing it back on the counter, untouched. This went unnoticed by Idunn since she was distracted watching Dean comically devour the snack and sipped her own beverage, tearing off small chunks of cookie alternating between feeding the dog and herself.

"This was always my favourite part of this job, the only part I actually liked, you know? The kids, they were always so happy." Idunn said generally, once again not directing her statement to anyone as she fed the drooling dog.

"Can I ask a question?" Dean asked quietly as he chewed on a piece of cookie, staring at an invisible stain on the floor just in front of his feet.

"Shoot," Idunn replied encouragingly, pleased the kid was talking again.

"Wha's up with the whole Disneylan' thin'?" He asked bluntly. " I mean you're this ancien', powerful god wigfh', an' you're spendin' your days in a theme park," Dean probed, receiving an amused laugh from Idunn.

"I love youth. I feed off it, and you can't get more youthful than Disneyland. No matter how old you are, even if it's only for half a second everybody feels like a kid in a sweet shop at Disneyland. It's pretty incredible; even I couldn't do that with the amount of power I have. There's no magic, nothing supernatural, just pure joy and imagination." Idunn shrugged taking a bite of the cookie she'd picked up, "Plus, after spending centuries in a freezing cold climate, a little sunshine's a nice break." Dean smiled around his fourth cookie.

"An' the toy store?" Dean gestured to the surrounding shelves.

Idunn shrugged again, "What can I say; I'm an enthusiast for classic toys." She began placing the used glasses and plate back onto the tray, returning to the kitchen to place them in the sink. "You can play with something if you'd like," She shouted through to him, knowing that was what he was hoping for, kids always did.

Dean rushed over to a model army truck he'd had his eye on since they'd stepped foot in the place. He rolled it across the floor, chasing after it when it moved forward, laughing hysterically the entire time. Winston, the dog, began following him and the car, becoming progressively excited by the young visitor. Dean stared at the dog for a moment, Castiel expected him to push it away, being aware of

his dislike for the animal, but instead, Dean petted it's fluffy head and giggled when it licked his face.

Castiel and Idunn watched as Dean played with the car and the dog, Idunn laughed whenever he did something unbelievably cute- which meant she laughed a lot- and even Castiel cracked a smile when he heard Dean's high-pitched shrieks of laughter.

Winston quickly got bored of the giggling toddler and returned to his position at Idunn's feet, resting his chin on the brown leather of her boots. Dean was unfazed by the dog's lack of interest, he just continued to play with the army truck and green army men Idunn had also given him.

The heart-warming laughter and commentary of events were soon interrupted by Winston's frantic barking. The dog jumped up and ran at the door, barking loudly. Dean had flinched, frightened by the dog's noisy reaction to whatever it was that had disturbed him.

"Oh no," Idunn muttered. She rushed forward and scooped Dean up into her arms. "Come on," She said to Castiel, motioning towards the stock cupboard on the left side of the store. Castiel followed her into the small, cramped room filled with empty boxes and old, unsold stock. Idunn handed Dean over to Castiel who wrapped his arms tightly around the shivering child.

Idunn placed a hand on either of Castiel's shoulders and stared directly into his eyes, "Stay in here." She spoke slowly, exaggerating each word. "Do not leave this room, either of you, no matter what happens, no matter what you hear or think you hear, just do not move. Promise me." She waited until both Castiel and Dean nodded. "And stay quiet." She added for mainly Dean's benefit. She pushed Castiel down forcefully so he was slumped against the wall, his arms wrapped protectively around Dean who was sat in his lap, face hidden in the tan trench-coat.

Idunn went back through the door into the store front where Winston continued to bark. She took a deep breath to calm herself, stroking the dog's head in an attempt to quieten it, saying softly, "Sh-h, Winston, it's okay. We can do this." The dog growled but did as its master requested, silencing it's barking.

The door opened on its own accord and a middle-aged woman strutted in confidently, the sound of her high heels hitting the floor echoed through the store creating a shattering atmosphere. Her strawberry blonde hair was tied up in a neat bun and her expensive black, silk dress clung to her figure.

"Idunn, you've probably guessed I'm not here for a social call so I'll get straight to It." She glanced around the store in distaste displaying her disapproval; the tone of her voice had the same demeaning effect. "I assume you know why I'm here." She hissed bitterly.

Idunn shrugged, releasing an over-exaggeratedly jaded huff. "No idea, I know it can't be because of Disneyland because you are incapable of having any form of fun. I hear there's a great restaurant around here." She snapped her fingers shaking her head. "No, it can't be that; you're not really a foodie person."

"Enough games Idunn, where is it?" the strawberry blonde advanced on the younger woman, her heels clicking on the wooden floor.

"Where's what?" Idunn asked.

"Idunn, I said enough games. What else would I be looking for?" her harsh voice cut through the tense air.

Dean clung tighter to Castiel's shirt as the two English voices battled each other for dominance and confidence; in an attempt to comfort the young, scared boy, Castiel employed a technique he'd seen Idunn use. He patted the blonde, shaggy hair in the same way Dean had petted the puppy, reserved but with a strong sense of affection.

"Well, I do get a lot of people coming in here asking for directions to the Magic Kingdom, like it's that hard to miss." Idunn smirked, her fear hidden by the sarcasm.

"This is why everybody hated you, Idunn." The older woman spat, becoming irritated by Idunn's childish behaviour.

"Yeah, well if everybody hated me why are they all looking for me? Ever think of that, huh?" Idunn asked with an immature scoff.

The other woman strode forward and grabbed Idunn by the collar of her dress, yanking the shorter woman upwards so they were at eye level. "Where. Is. It?" She gritted her teeth as she said it.

"Wow, Sigyn. I've never realised how pretty your eyes are before." Idunn grinned. Idunn went tumbling backwards when Sigyn hurled her away, wobbling for a moment before she was able to regain her balance. "You know, that wasn't very nice." Idunn said as she patted down her dress now crumpled dress.

"You're pathetic, you always have been." Sigyn commented as she swiftly studied Idunn form.

"You're just still jealous Mum trusted me more, even though you were the- what did you call it-" Idunn tapped her finger against her chin for effect, "Oh that was it, 'The Superior Daughter'."

Sigyn snapped, striking Idunn across the cheek. Castiel's grip tightened as Dean squirmed to be set free, wanting to help their new friend. Castiel stared pointedly at him, silently telling Dean to remain quiet like Idunn had instructed.

"I will ask you only once more. Where is it?" Sigyn's voice was chillingly calm.

Idunn spat the blood out of her mouth, shaking her head as she laughed. She raised her head to look at Sigyn again. "It's gone, I destroyed the last one years ago."

"I know that's a lie." Her voice rose before she collected herself, an unsettling smile appearing on her face. "But no worries, I suppose I will just extract what's left from that Winchester boy; I assume he's around here somewhere." Sigyn stared down at the model truck and army men implying she had already deduced that Dean had in fact been in the store, sparing a knowing glance at her younger sister.

Dean's eyes widened at the mention of his name, staring up at Castiel with a terrified expression. The angel patted his head lightly again in an effort to calm Dean's and his own nerves.

"Well, you know what they say when you assume right? Although you're already an ass so I guess it can't make you any more of one." Idunn noted, her voice becoming bitterer.

"Just tell me where he is and this will all be over. You can return to your bleak existence here and I will return home." Sigyn said, fixing her dress and turning away from Idunn, no longer interested in the younger woman who stared at her confused.

"Mum wouldn't let you touch the kid; we're not supposed to interfere. Anyway, the Winchester's are off limits to _everyone_; you know that." Idunn retorted.

"Well, she's desperate now. You made her desperate." Sigyn said slowly.

"Yeah, well tough because I'm not telling you shit." Idunn shrugged again, unsure what else to do to hide her crippling fear. Sigyn hit her other cheek, harder this time and Idunn's hand immediately went to cover the developing red mark. Dean wriggled in Castiel's arms again at the sound of the ruthless skin contact and although Castiel also wanted to help Idunn, he knew that they couldn't; Sigyn was more powerful than himself and they'd be giving her exactly what she wanted, Dean. Castiel couldn't break his promise to both Idunn and Sam, even if he did feel terrible about it.

"You ungrateful, selfish child; you would rather protect these swine than help save your own family?" Sigyn's voice was increasing in both anger and volume.

"Yes," Idunn shot back instantly, her hand still cupping her cheek. "In a heartbeat. I'd gladly help these 'swine' over you. For one thing, they've never tried to kill me, so there's that." She laughed as blood collected in her mouth from Sigyn's latest assault.

"You should never have betrayed us then." Sigyn said with yet another strike, this one hard enough to send Idunn to the floor.

Idunn looked up at Sigyn with a pained expression. "Betrayed you?" She asked as tears swelled in her eyes. "I was a confused kid who made a dumb decision in the middle of a war. Could you really blame me? I had to watch as my family killed each other for no other reason than power. Were you really that unaffected when Mum killed Dad?" Sigyn looked away from her sister. "Because I was. And then I was given this unbelievably heavy burden that I didn't want; it made me a target to everyone." Sigyn closed her eyes while Idunn spoke, unable to look at her younger sister. "Mum always criticised me and had no problem expressing her disappointment. She thought of me as an object, a possession that had no emotions." She choked back the tears, quietly laughing at how absurd her life seemed when spoken out loud. "My big sister's even attacking me because Mum told you too. You were supposed to look out for me, protect me, be my friend and instead you tried to find anyway to steal what little power and importance I had."

Sigyn opened her eyes to look at Idunn who shook her head at the situation as she choked out. "And I'm the one who betrayed you? I ran, yes. I admit that it was stupid and I shouldn't have, but how dare you say that I betrayed you." She'd given up holding back the tears. "I've missed you, and Mum and ever since the moment I left, I have been trying to find a way to make it up to you, a way to make you all forgive me, a way to return home. I thought you would have changed, but I guess I was wrong. You are still the same petty bitch you've always been."

Sigyn stepped forward again, "I will kill you Idunn, and I have no issues with that. It would just be less hassle if I didn't have to. Just tell me where the kid is." She spoke with no trace of emotion in her voice.

"Go screw yourself." Idunn spat, blood staining her teeth.

Sigyn withdrew the large blade from ostensibly thin air, raising it in preparation to kill her younger sister. "Goodbye Idunn." She lowered the knife but before it reached the younger, crying woman, Sigyn was halted by a high-pitched yell.

"Back off bitch. I'm here so you can leave her alone!" Dean shouted at her, Castiel rushing to try to grab the determined toddler only to be shrugged off.

A malicious grin spread across Sigyn's face as she turned away from Idunn, facing Dean and Castiel who was now holding Dean's shoulder's protectively.

"Dean, no." Idunn whispered through tears as she looked at the child consumed with a momentary sense of confidence that was quickly dwindling.

"Oh Dean," the words sent shivers down Castiel's spine and Dean quaked where he stood, immediately regretting his impromptu discussion that now seemed simply idiotic. Sigyn felt great pleasure in their frightened reactions. "We have such big plans for you." Sigyn's grin widened as she stalked towards Dean.

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AN: Sorry this is a little late, I do apologise but I hope it's worth it. Thank you to everyone who is continuing to read the story and as always thank you for the reviews. A bit of action and back story to some of my OCs in this chapter which I hope you enjoy. I will try to update as soon as possible but for now enjoy!


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

"Where the hell are they?" Sam frantically asked Gabriel. The store was a mess, granted most of it had been caused by Sam's hysterical searching for his brother who was nowhere to be found, but there had been signs of an obvious struggle before that. When they had returned with all the ingredients, which had not been easily obtained, only Winston had been in the store where he had left his brother. Sam ran a hand through his hair trying to restrict his straying imagination that was currently preoccupied with the worst possible scenarios of what could have happened to Dean.

"Sam, I told you that I don't know." Gabriel responded as calmly as he could, not wanting to fuel Sam's anxiety despite the fact that his own was rising undesirably high.

Sam leaned against the counter trying to steady his breathing to its standard speed. He tapped his foot on the floor trying to think of anything that could help find his brother. He slammed his hands on the counter when the idea came to him. "I can use the GPS in his cell phone." Sam barked a laugh of relief as he pulled out his laptop and typed away at the keyboard. Silence filled the room as Sam stared at the computer intently.

Gabriel watched him with great anticipation. He should've been able to sense Dean, Castiel or Idunn but he couldn't detect any of them, he knew something was dreadfully wrong.

"Damn it." Sam roared after a couple of minutes.

"What?" Gabriel asked, slightly flustered. If anyone else asked, he would deny feeling any sense of worry for that irritating de-aged hunter, his brother or the admittedly naïve goddess.

"His phone's still in Ohio; he must've left it at Chuck's house." Sam muttered slamming the laptop down with more force than was necessary. "We'll never find them." He sighed with his eyes closed, giving up on the last dreads of hope he'd had.

"Sam, we just have to calm down and think about this for a moment." Gabriel rationalised despite feeling just as hopeless.

"I should never have left him here. I am the worst brother in the world." He scolded himself, ignoring Gabriel's words.

"Really? You want to say that to me?" Gabriel joked, immediately regretting making the joke at such an inappropriate time but Sam had stopped listening long ago.

Sam tapped the counter as if channelling his mental power to come up with a descent plan, but all he could think about was what a terrible brother he was. His mind was too crowded with thoughts about what dreadful situations Dean could be in and how he was just standing there uselessly.

Gabriel was also being distracted, although his distraction was an excited puppy clawing at his thigh, desperately trying to gain his attention. When he finally looked down at Winston, the dog barked once and ran away from him to the counter where he initiated his grating barking once more. Gabriel sighed in annoyance at the barking of the dumb dog, he'd thought for a moment that Winston was being useful but he was wrong; the dog was just mindlessly bashing it's nose against the floor. Gabriel watched this action; it probably would've been amusing had not three fairly unstable people gone missing.

As he watched Winston he noticed a small purple square on the wooden floor and walked over while Sam muttered incoherent comments about his lack of brotherly instinct. He swooped down and read the hurriedly scribbled writing on the scrap of paper that he recognised as Idunn's handwriting.

_Sigyn._

That was all that was written but it was all that Gabriel needed to know that Dean, Castiel and Idunn were in deep trouble. "Damn," He breathed as he searched the lilac paper for any other details only to find nothing.

When he looked up from the piece of paper he noticed Sam staring at him, "What is it?"

Gabriel handed Sam the paper. Sam quickly read the short note, flipped it over to see if there was anything else written on the back and after seeing that there were no other notes he turned his attention back to Gabriel.

"What's Sigyn?" Sam asked fiddling with the scrap of paper.

"Who," Gabriel corrected. "She's a god as well, the goddess of fidelity to be specific. She's also Idunn's older sister."

Sam nodded along, "Well what's she got to do with this?"

"I assume that she's the one who's got them. She probably wants to get the de-aging spell, which knowing Idunn means she will have to get it forcefully." Sam continued to stare confusedly. "You know, as in reverse engineering."

Sam straightened up, "You mean as in take it from Dean?"

"Wow, you catch on fast, don't ya?" Gabriel said sarcastically.

"Is that even possible?" Sam asked disbelievingly.

"Technically, yes but it won't end well." Gabriel explained.

"We have to stop her." Sam insisted.

"Well, duh." Gabriel replied once again with a healthy dose of sarcasm.

"Do you know how to find her, this Sigyn?" Sam shook the scrap of paper as a visual aid to explain his request to Gabriel.

Gabriel wafted his hand away, "You have to understand that she's extremely powerful, like more powerful than Castiel and Idunn put together." Sam enthusiastically nodded to display his understanding. "The good thing about that amount of power is that because of the volume of it she usually emits some form of this power, like Idunn but on a much higher level. There should be some sign in the weather, animal behaviour or anything out of the ordinary in the surrounding area that will give away her location." Sam nodded and opened his laptop again, waiting for it to load before checking if anything unusual had been reported over the past couple of hours. Gabriel waited patiently, glancing around the store for anymore possible clues they could've missed.

"Here, someone's said that it started randomly snowing about half an hour ago after a freak lightning storm; it seems to be originating from this abandoned warehouse not far from here." Sam said while looking for where the building was on a map.

"It's a little unimaginative don't you think?" Gabriel said crossing his arms.

"You're kidding, right?" Sam asked with a slight laugh.

"Obviously she just copied me." Gabriel stated with a childish pout.

Sam sighed and continued to find the warehouse. After he'd scribbled the location of the warehouse in the notepad on the side, Sam ripped the piece of paper out of the notepad, shut the laptop and put it back in his bag.

"Can you get us here?" Sam asked handing Gabriel the piece of paper.

"If you have to ask we obviously haven't spent enough time together." Gabriel commented.

"Trust me; we've spent more than enough time." Sam said under his breath as they arrived at the street where there was over a foot of snow that only existed within the perimeter of about half a mile in each direction of the warehouse.

"This good enough sign?" Sam more prompted than asked Gabriel who wiggled his feet that were deeply planted in the snow.

"Alright, alright, do you want a medal or something?" He asked as he treaded behind Sam in the direction of a snow covered warehouse that had been badly boarded up.

"What do we do now?" Sam asked in a hushed voice, coming to a halt in front of the warehouse entrance.

"I suggest we go inside. Why do you have any other bright ideas?" Gabriel asked, words punctuated by the chattering of teeth.

_Could angels even get cold?_ Sam thought as he turned to address the shivering angel.

"But you said Sigyn was dangerous, I mean she could overpower us right?" Sam asked his own teeth chattering uncontrollably.

Gabriel nodded. "Duh, she could kill us without a second thought. It would be super easy for her." Gabriel confirmed.

Sam blinked a couple of times, dumbfounded by Gabriel's response. "So shouldn't we have a plan to, you know, avoid being killed?" Sam suggested with a hint of anger and irritation.

"Sigyn will be expecting a well-thought out plan, so our best chance is to just go in guns blazing, no plan just shoot; or you know you go in guns blazing. At least that might catch her off guard." Gabriel said with a shrug.

Sam scrunched his face, "You're not coming in?"

"I'll be your back-up, just from out here." Gabriel shivered.

Sam sighed as he pulled out his automatic from the top of his jeans, checking it was loaded and in a fit state to attack a god. After making sure the safety was off and the gun was functioning correctly, he gave a nod to Gabriel and burst through the heavy doors of the warehouse. He aimed his gun at each corner of the vast, bare room, searching for something to unload his bullets- and fury- in. He saw three figures huddled together in one of the corners. He sprinted over, dropping his gun to his side as a precaution.

"Are you okay?" He asked dropping to his knees. He helped the three captives out of their rope bindings, checking each one individually as he did so.

As soon as Dean was able to, he wrapped his arms around Sam's neck, shaking in his brother's arms. "Hey, calm down." Sam urged, rather taken back by the desperateness of his obviously terrified brother. "It's okay," He hushed, stroking Dean's hair in an attempt to calm the now crying four year old.

"S'my." Dean sobbed into Sam's shoulder, his breath hitching from the lack of oxygen caused by the excessive crying.

"What happened?" Sam asked as his fingers ghosted the recent wounds on Idunn's face whilst he removed the binding which seemed to be soaked in something. This task deemed more difficult with Dean clinging to him.

"Just a misunderstanding." She smiled weakly, shaking out her cramped hands.

"Yes, we had a minor disagreement." A cold but familiar voice said from somewhere out of Sam's field of vision. His head snapped around to look at the woman behind him. "Hello Sam." She said as she watched his eyes widen with the realization. "I suppose by now you've guessed that I'm Sigyn, it's a pleasure to finally be formally acquainted. Isn't it?" She looked down at the gun she held in her hand, studying it before she aimed it at Sam's head.

"You're- you're the woman from the gas station." He stuttered as Dean tightened his shaky grip.

"Yes, that's correct." Sigyn said flatly.

"You've been following us." Sam also tightened his grip on Dean with one arm as Sigyn stepped forward; raising his own gun to aim at her.

"Correct again Sam. Aren't you just the little detective?" She asked rhetorically, slowly making her way over to them. Sam's arm moved to follow his target. "Oh, put it away won't you? It would have no affect anyway." She waved her hand and Sam's gun dissolved into a dark liquid with an unpleasant texture. "I'm surprised how quickly you found me actually. You make quite a team, the four of you. It's a shame you're all going to have to die."

As Sigyn readied the gun to shoot Sam, she unexpectedly dropped it from her now limp arm; her eyes glowing a bright orange as her back arched. Her eyes returned to normal when she hit the floor, revealing Gabriel standing behind her cleaning what appeared to be a sharpened wooden branch covered in blood.

"She left me out of the group." Gabriel said with a small laugh as he stepped over the body.

"Great back-up," Sam said sarcastically lowering the gun.

"Well, I had to go pick this up first." He waved the wooden spear. "Do you know how hard it is to find a fossil of a German Beech tree?"

Idunn stood up and dusted her dress which was covered in dust.

"Thank you Loki." She said with a courteous smile. "Now have you got the ingredients I needed so you can all go and I can return to my normal, uneventful life before anything else disastrous happens?" She said trying to maintain her smile but with obvious weariness. "No offence or anything but my life's gone to hell since you turned up, and that was only like three hours ago. I'd like to get back to my store and my dog if you wouldn't mind."

Gabriel handed Idunn the bag of ingredients while Sam placed Dean on the floor.

"Okay, let's do this." Idunn said rubbing her hands together before shaking them out again. "Now I just need to remember what to do first." Dean gulped as he stared up at the woman who didn't fill him with confidence. Idunn noticed this and shone a reassuring smile. "Come on, it will be fine…"

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AU: Sorry I took so long on this chapter but I have been swamped and ill. So this is the penultimate chapter and I've almost finished the last one so it will be up soon. Thank you for all your support along the way and I hope you've enjoyed the story. Thank you for the reviews as always, they are always much appreciated. Until next time, enjoy!


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